Last week, we wrote that Turtle Rock Studios was defending their stance on Evolve's downloadable content scheme. There are going to be special enemies and content available for gamers who pre-order the game. Furthermore, some of this material will be exclusive to specific consoles; think PS4, Xbox One, PC.
Turtle Rock Studios' creative director, Phil Robb, spoke to Destructoid in an interview late last year. This may help shed some light on why the developer has chosen to follow such a treacherous path regarding downloadable content in Evolve.
“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,”
Yet, what they have announced for pre-order incentives only work to reinforce the recent naysayers.
“I think a lot of people probably feel like [DLC] is milking the community,”
“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.”
Maybe there's just something lost in the translation. Perhaps the content of the game will be enough to offset any small downloadable content made exclusive to other platforms. Only time will tell, as the game releases on February 10 of this year.