Left 4 Dead's successor wasn't a flop – it was just 'ahead of its time', say devs

techradar.com:

Seven-year-old multiplayer shooter Evolve recently received a second wind, but developer Turtle Rock Studios reckons its ill-fated follow-up to Left 4 Dead might have stood a better chance of survival if it had been released today.

The asymmetric competitive shooter – in which four players face off against a mutating, player-controlled monster – was all but shuttered only a few years after its release in 2015. After initially gaining critical traction, Evolve was relaunched with a free-to-play model a year after launch, before its dedicated multiplayer servers were taken offline in 2018.

But it’s seen a resurgence in recent weeks. After publisher 2K resurrected Evolve’s peer-to-peer servers, the game’s player numbers rocketed above anything it had seen over the past few years.

Speaking to TechRadar Gaming, director Phil Robb reckons that resurgence is owed to loyal fans, but also influenced by the gaming industry at large. With gaming’s shift towards team-based shooters like Overwatch 2, and the popularity of free-to-play shooters such as Fortnite, he thinks Evolve might have been spared its demise in today’s climate.

“Evolve might have been a bit ahead of its time and might have a better shot today than it did in 2015 if it properly launched with a different business model,” says Robb.

“Unfortunately, being ahead of one’s time isn’t always a good thing, since that won’t keep the lights on. I think if Evolve was launched today as a free-to-play game, it would have a much better shot.

“Also, given the number of team-based games that have launched since Evolve, I think audiences now probably will have an easier time understanding how it works than they may have back at launch.”

When Evolve hit shelves back in 2015, its