Evolve Gets Way More Popular

Near the end of last week, Evolve developer Turtle Rock announced its new plans to revitalize it's asymmetric competitive 1v4 multiplayer game, which started suffering from a great deal of stagnation not long after its critically acclaimed release. Their plan was to shift the game to Evolve: Stage 2, a free-to-play version of Evolve where you could use in-game currency, keys, to buy cosmetics, while being able to enjoy the base monster-hunting game without paying a cent up front.

Now, traditionally, shifting to free-to-play is a desperate last shot at relevance for struggling MMORPG's, like DC Universe Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic, and while it has happened in the past (Lookin' at you, Team Fortress 2), it's certainly way more unprecedented in these types of games.

So how's it working?

Really, really well.

According to PC gamer, on Wednesday, before the jump to free to play, the number of daily users was sitting at 157 people. But Friday, the day after the launch of Stage 2, that number cranked up to 25,167. That's a 15,000% increase in users. It even jumped up to the 17th most played game on Steam.

Turtle Rock co-founders Chris Ashton and Phil Robb had this to say:

"When Evolve launched, the reception wasn't what we expected. Sure, there were some good reviews. There were also bad reviews. Yes, there was excitement. There was also disappointment - for players and for us. The DLC s***storm hit full force and washed away people's enthusiasm, dragging us further and further from that first magical pick-up-and-play experience. We want that magic back and we aim to make it happen."

So, an increase in players is certainly good, especially for matchmaking, but will it get them the sweet cash-money they so desperately need? No way for us to tell now, but we'll find out sooner rather than later--after all, there are console versions of Evolve that could also make the jump, and if they do, then Turtle Rock must be doing something right.

Only time will tell...