I'm not overly fond of the free-to-play business model, but it doesn't irk me like it used to, more as a consequence of pure saturation than any kind of rationale overhaul. It's here, it's happening, it's making developers money and people are wary enough at this point to at least keep an eye on the overly exploitative games. So, fine, I'm cool with it. It wasn't until the past few months that I finally saw the value of it. As it goes, in the absence of something is when its benefits hit you most obviously in the face. We're talking about Evolve, from developer in earnest Turtle Rock Studios and a publisher way too far removed from scrutiny, 2K.
Evolve began its life in the public eye with almost universal praise. That was our mistake. Out of E3 2014, the first real public showing, the game looked inventive and exciting. Four hunters up against one massive monster, all controlled by live players, was assuredly a new idea, or at least it was an idea new in AAA development. Turtle Rock was made famous by Left 4 Dead, the unfortunately named early innovator in asynchronous multiplayer design. The irony is in that game's publisher, Valve, which lead the way in free-to-play implementation with Team Fortress 2. Left 4 Dead was a fully priced AAA game when it came out, though. Making a game with a full price tag is the environment Turtle Rock grew up in. It would make sense for them to seek out, or be sought out by, a publisher equally comfortable with that kind of development. Queue 2K, as traditional as they come.
2K publishes a wide variety of games from an equally wide variety of developers, virtually all of which operate under some financial strategy derived from an earlier era of the industry. The Civilization series still puts out huge expansions multiple times after a core title comes out. The Borderlands series follows a similar model. 2K's in-house sports titles follow the same incremental pattern of change as they always have. None of this is bad, or wrong, or harmful to their final product, because the games at hand are as traditional in structure as their value proposition. The difference with Evolve, and the relationship between Turtle Rock and 2K, is that the core game requires an entirely different monetization outlook due almost to one simple truth: Evolve is a multiplayer-only title with the potential for an extremely long life on the market. But that's not how 2K wants to sell it.
The outcome from this marriage of like-minded developer and publisher is a game that sells itself based on the rules created before online distribution became mainstream, $60 at the gate. Well, it's selling itself like that now, before release. Afterwards it's supposed to become a game that sells itself like free-to-play competitive games do today. Additional characters, on both the hunter and monster side of the equation, are on the docket for post-release production. Right now, you can buy a season pass for an additional $25 to ensure access to those characters when they're eventually patched into the game. And they will be patched into everyone's game, no matter if you've bought them, since Turtle Rock intends for everyone to play in the same lobbies together, whether they share the same DLC or not. That's not how traditional paid DLC works in the AAA world though. That's how competitive free-to-play games, like League of Legends and DOTA 2, both MOBAs, do it. Everyone buys what they want and everyone plays together. There's no asking price at the gate. Don't let the genre switch fool you. Evolve is a game designed with very much the same idea, except it's going to cost $60 for the first round of "heroes" and initial access to the lobby. 2K wants the best of both worlds but the result is a scheme belonging in another dimension. It doesn't make sense.
I have no doubt 2K will make a fortune when the game comes out. I do doubt, however, just how long Evolve will stay alive in the years, or even months, after it hits the market. Games that lean on future content for the divergent reasons of continued community vitality and financial legitimization need to do one very important thing: eliminate the barrier to entry. It's why MOBAs took over the eSports world and it's why the PC platform has bounced back so resoundingly after more than a decade of console dominance. Money. It always comes down to money. Throwing a $25 season pass on top of a $60 is a lot to swallow, especially when similarly structured games on the market ask nothing at all.
It's already clear the pre-release following of Evolve is unhappy with 2K's current plan. It's a lot of cash to throw down for what many consider to be a game pretty light on content. It's multiplayer-only (with a bot mode for the loners), features a total of six maps, but with a healthy dose of modes and 3 monsters/sets of four hunters. The reality, of course, is Evolve is a repetitive experience, and one that only hardcore, competitive people will still be excited about months down the line. Having already cut out a majority of potential players with the $60 tag, how active the community will be is a question undoubtedly heavy on the minds of the people at Turtle Rock. A quick look at Titanfall's depressingly tiny community and you'll know no AAA label or financial backing will ensure a game's future. The only thing that ensures a game's future are the people that play it. 2K's total lack of respect for any potential player base will kill the game.
But in the hypothetical world we can ignore the financial component. Let's imagine for a moment if Turtle Rock hadn't hooked in with 2K for the development of Evolve, and instead decided for independent development or sought out a more progressive publisher. As a matter of fact, if it had survived the trials of early development into a fully playable state, which is by no means guaranteed, it would look a lot like another game on my mind right now: Nosgoth, from developer Psyonix and publisher Square Enix.
Nosgoth is an asymmetrical arena shooter that entered an open beta just this January, pitting humans that function under classic third-person shooter rules against vampires that leap and fly across the battlefield. It's a spinoff of the Legacy of Kain series. It's pretty scrappy, pretty light on content, free-to-play and already monetized in the common free-to-play way. Cosmetic changes to the characters can be purchased through the store, as can you use real-life currency to boost your way through the more functional upgrading of your characters. These things can also be purchased with in-game currency, which takes a calculatedly thick amount of time to earn. Twitch streamers are taking to the game quite nicely, so it's starting to build a following. Go ahead and play it if you want.
If Evolve had gone this way, it would only be on PC right now and it wouldn't be close to finished. There might only be a single set of playable characters, opposed to the three planned for the game's retail launch. There might only be one mode and three maps. Those are the downsides. It would take a lot longer to make and it might never have reached the state of polish it's in right now. The upside, if it did get that far, it would have a life to look forward to. It would have a following that isn't rabid with expectation, but grateful to enjoy a cool, if unpolished, game for free. Evolve wouldn't be a looming event with a painful hangover, it would be a game with a different set of struggles, but a set of struggles proven surmountable by the free-to-play PC games before it.
A lot of these games are available to the public before they're finished products, which when made clear to the players becomes less a problem and more of its own solution. The understanding that a game will get better and denser over time ensures that the fans will never ask too much and look forward to incoming updates. Nosgoth is benefitting from a very public development process, trading a boatload of upfront cash for a long-term commitment from its player base. It works because of the free-to-play model. Evolve, on the other hand, which has dipped ungracefully in and out of public alphas and betas since its reveal, will tug the game away from its players when it finally launches and force them to drop $60 for a game they've already played. Hilariously, those who participated in the Xbox One beta will be able to continue their character unlocking progress if they do make the purchase. Maybe that looks good on paper. It's not. It's like yanking the carrot out of someone's mouth and reselling it, bite-marks included.