There has been a lot of uproar and furore over Evolve’s planned DLC, which, in addition to a $30 Season Pass, is also selling individual characters for obscenely high prices. The backlash and negative response to this proposed idea has been immense, to the extent that all of the good press and momentum that the game had garnered so far risks being squandered entirely.
But now, director Phil Robb has spoken out in response in an interview with Destructoid, trying to make the developer’s side of the story clear:
We have the game set up in such a way that we can expand upon it if that is the desire,” he said.
“Our plan is one we pushed for as consumers. Never split the community, no pay to win, all that kind of bullshit that are hallmarks of DLC plans specifically made to leech money out of people.”
“I don’t like people thinking we’re doing underhanded, dirty shit,” said Robb when asked about a comment made by a fellow developer last year regarding the game’s DLC-happy structure.
He said that he understood why players would be wary of DLC.
“I think a lot of people probably feel like DLC is milking the community,” he noted.
“That’s fair because a lot of companies approach it that way.
“All our maps are gonna be free. Everyone gets that. Any of the monsters or hunters we put out are going to be paid DLC, but the nice thing about that, and this is something we pushed for really hard, even if you don’t buy it you can play against it. So it’s still not splitting the community.
“If we’re going to make money we want to feel good about the way we’ve done it, we don’t want to feel like we’ve hoodwinked people.”
It does sound like Turtle Rock is caught between a rock and a hard place- it sounds like the actual DLC monetization is being decided upon by the publisher and they are doing the best they can.
All I can hope is that 2K sees the backlash, and addresses the obscene DLC pricing soon. And for Turtle Rock, I hope the strength of their core game still shines through.