Evolution Studios closed by Sony

  • Thread starter TonyJZX
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I don't see how this was unexpected TBH. I love DC, everyone here knows that, but literally all I heard about it before I bought a PS4, was that it had a lengthy delay, only to be released in a barely working condition, with hardly any features to speak of, very little content, and the PS+ edition MIA.

Evo did an amazing job turning DC around and building on it, and the season pass for DC was bar none the best value for money I've ever seen. However, the game was meant to be a launch title for the PS4, with a free PS+ version to A) promote the game and get extra sales, and B) convince more people to subscribe to PS+.

The cost to Sony for the title would have been significant to begin with, and then with the game being delayed for almost a year, Sony would have been bleeding money by the time DC came out. Then when it did come out, it was slammed by everyone as being buggy, unfinished, and underwhelming. At this point Sony would have had invested so much money in DC, only for it to release so late and in a bad state.

Now I'll say it again, Evo did an amazing job turning the game around, and they added all the missing features, got rid of the bugs, got the online stuff well sorted, and then provided a lot of DLC content. However, the licences for that content wouldn't have been cheap, and the sheer amount of people who would have returned or simply stopped playing the game would have been massive, so I doubt the DLC sold very well. I should also point out that DC came with the PS4 in a lot of retailer deals, I know that's how I got my copy of DC. I also don't know anyone personally that paid for DC, they either got it free with their PS4, or didn't get it at all.

I seriously doubt DC actually made any profit for Sony in the end. As great as Evo had made the game, everyone except the small group of fans had moved on long before the game was fixed and made so amazing. It's extremely sad, but the first few weeks of any game's existence will make or break it.

I just hope the people at Evo are able to stick together and continue to make the awesome games they're known for.
 
Mike_grpA
...As great as Evo had made the game, everyone except the small group of fans had moved on long before the game was fixed and made so amazing. It's extremely sad, but the first few weeks of any game's existence will make or break it.

I just hope the people at Evo are able to stick together and continue to make the awesome games they're known for.
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I know this could still be classed as part of the 'small group of fans' but in all honesty, the social media reaction has been consistently supportive of DC throughout the past few days in a surprisingly strong wave of empathy. I mean, it's even been noted here how many people who came out of the proverbial woodwork to support the title with good wishes - there have also been the several million people visible on the leader boards who have played DC.
 
MeanElf
I know this could still be classed as part of the 'small group of fans' but in all honesty, the social media reaction has been consistently supportive of DC throughout the past few days in a surprisingly strong wave of empathy. I mean, it's even been noted here how many people who came out of the proverbial woodwork to support the title with good wishes - there have also been the several million people visible on the leader boards who have played DC.
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Well it's sad news to hear of any good developer going under. If T10 went under I'd be sad, despite now owning an XB1 or any Forza games. Most of the people posting here aren't regular posters in the DC subforum, so I doubt most of them play DC. But that's neither here nor there.

As for the "several million" people on the leaderboards, I haven't looked to see exactly how many there are, but I do know a lot of people make multiple PSN accounts, so I doubt the leaderboards are an accurate representation of how many people bought the game. All we know on that is that DC had sold 2m units as of mid last year. I would guess it's not passed the 3m mark, or we would have heard about it. I also doubt a lot of those sales were at full price, thanks to the launch disaster.

Edit: It's an unfortunate set of circumstances that led to such an amazing game not getting the recognition, praise, or sales that it deserved, and it's killed off an amazing developer. Hopefully the people at Evolution are able to stay together and re-form to make some less ambitious, but equally great, games.
 
Wow! this sucks Motorstorm is my favorite franchise I own them all, so many hours of fun and frustration at the same time Bye Evolution you will be missed :(:(:(:(:( Time to go back to 2008 when I first played Motorstorm that game blew my mind and Apocalypse was such a blast!
 
Mike_grpA
...As for the "several million" people on the leaderboards, I haven't looked to see exactly how many there are, but I do know a lot of people make multiple PSN accounts, so I doubt the leaderboards are an accurate representation of how many people bought the game. All we know on that is that DC had sold 2m units as of mid last year. I would guess it's not passed the 3m mark, or we would have heard about it. I also doubt a lot of those sales were at full price, thanks to the launch disaster...
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I've heard the idea before that people will have multiple accounts - I had two myself for a while but I think that the percentage who have more than one account will be a lot smaller than say with a game like GT5 where you could gift cars between accounts.

I'm basing the 'several million' comment on the lowest ranking person on my FL who was around 4.5 millionth the last time I looked. I don't think it's possible to see the full leader board, so unless anyone from the group taking over Evolution's work, or anyone from Evolution themselves (quite unlikely) pops up to say what the sales were, I suppose we'll never know.
 
Mr Latte
So if Sony have future plans for an alternative "car game" to GT to be on PS4 then it is very possible such could come about. I doubt the VR testing/development was done that it will go to waste, it very much could of been for the benefit of GT Sport or yet unknown title under Sony control.
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I'd love for this to be true, but I just don't see it happening. Sony killed one of its two only racing studios. They're going all in on GT, which would be fine if Polyphony was half as efficient and productive as Evolution has historically been. If Sony wanted to introduce another first-party exclusive alternative to GT, don't you think they would have kept around the only people who could have made it possible?
 
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glassjaw
I'd love for this to be true, but I just don't see it happening. Sony killed one of its two only racing studios. They're going all in on GT, which would be fine if Polyphony was half as efficient and productive as Evolution has historically been. If Sony wanted to introduce another first-party exclusive alternative to GT, don't you think they would have kept around the only people who could have made it possible?
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To be fair, we do not know for certain yet what is fully happening, or in the pipeline to come to PS4 for the next 12 months. Drive Club may only of ever been a (stop gap) for GT and offer an alternative to Xbox/Forza. We are not privy to the full situation, some of the talent from the studio may be going on to do even greater things and I doubt such talent will be wasted.

Remains to be seen if Sony only want to focus on GT and rely on 3rd party developers to bring alternative "driving/racing" games. I guess they know how crowded this genre is becoming currently too but to be fair GT has such long development cycles unlike Forza so they may still want to have a close relationship with a new or other developer(s).
 
glassjaw
I'd love for this to be true, but I just don't see it happening. Sony killed one of its two only racing studios. They're going all in on GT
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I'm not so pessimistic that DC VR will never come. During last GDC @Rushy33 tweeted this.





I'm quite certain that he already new for a long time before the GDC that Evo would be closed. If Sony has no more plans for DC VR, than why would he bother re-tweeting this image?
 
Mr Latte
To be fair, we do not know for certain yet what is fully happening, or in the pipeline to come to PS4 for the next 12 months. Drive Club may only of ever been a (stop gap) for GT and offer an alternative to Xbox/Forza. We are not privy to the full situation, some of the talent from the studio may be going on to do even greater things and I doubt such talent will be wasted.
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Oh yes we know nothing for certain, I'm just saying that the chances of another first-party alternative to GT are grim since they eliminated the only studio that could have done it.

Mr Latte
Remains to be seen if Sony only want to focus on GT and rely on 3rd party developers to bring alternative "driving/racing" games. I guess they know how crowded this genre is becoming currently too but to be fair GT has such long development cycles unlike Forza so they may still want to have a close relationship with a new or other developer(s).
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This is more likely. The genre doesn't have the same kind of mass-market draw it used to. I don't have the sales numbers to fully back up that claim, but just looking at the field of triple-A racing titles, it's smaller than it's ever been. Today you see more games like Project Cars and Assetto Corsa — hyper-focused niche hardcore simulations developed by small studios on a much tighter budget. Those kinds of racing games are growing, which is fine, but everything else is disappearing. Over the last two generations we've seen lots of racing IPs come and go (remember Enthusia? That Sega Rally reboot? Where'd Burnout go? Midnight Club? Ridge Racer didn't even turn up for any of the console launches. And Codemasters has undergone massive layoffs, especially the Dirt and Grid teams.)

I feel like Sony wanted a more accessible, fun racer that truly took advantage of the power of the PS4 in a way no third-party PC port could, while Polyphony was slaving away on GT Sport. And although I and many others feel Driveclub definitely delivered on that promise, the triple-A arcade racer is a much harder sell in today's market than it was 10 or 20 years ago.
 
FosterG
Yes Denur, I am aware of that, but how will it be supported in the future?
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June will be a good indication of how it will be supported. Rushy just said it takes about a month and a half to put a car in the game. That would mean April is done, and May would have been secured. June is the first month that I would say is up in the air.
 
RazorSharkz
June will be a good indication of how it will be supported. Rushy just said it takes about a month and a half to put a car in the game. That would mean April is done, and May would have been secured. June is the first month that I would say is up in the air.
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E3 will be an even better indication.
 
cutmeamango
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ins-codemasters-hocking-becomes-vp-of-product

They are at Codemasters now.
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My reaction :

MarkHamill1.jpg


Is this a good news or not ?
 
Ridox2JZGTE
So Evo gets funding by Codies or just absorbed into Codies as workers ?
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Evolution will become one of Codemasters' many studios. I assume that means they'll be semi-independent, as in they will work on projects with the rest of Codemasters but they will also have some freedom to work on their own titles.

We have very exciting news today. We’re delighted to announce that on the 25th April, Codemasters will be expanding its portfolio of studios to include the highly-respected and very talented team from Evolution Studios.
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We’re also delighted that Mick Hocking – formerly of Evolution Studios – will be taking the position of VP Product Development at Codemasters; a role which will see him responsible for all of the company’s studios – including the addition of the now multi-platform Evolution team in Cheshire.
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