Evolve’s getting even more downloadable content next week.
The multiplayer monster shooter only released in February, and publisher 2K Games is already unleashing a second season of paid-for DLC. Starting June 23, Evolve players can get access to one new monster, four new hunters, and five character skins, drip-fed over time, if they buy the second season pass. No price details are available yet, but the first season of DLC cost $25.
Season passes are increasingly becoming the norm for triple-A games, as they provide developers and publishers with a second stream of incoming on top of initial retail and digital sales. Not all studios believe it’s the right thing to do, though, as it can leave gamers feeling ripped off.
Evolve sold well at launch, especially for a new title, with 2.5 million copies sold across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC by May. The game launched with a ton of paid-for extra content, including the initial season pass, which riled a lot of gamers. This extra content didn’t help with its digital sales, though, and it doesn’t seem to have helped with player retention either.
Currently, Evolve is only the 234th most popular game on Valve’s Steam gaming service with less than 500 players logged in. At launch, it saw peaks of around 27,000 concurrent players, but this is now down to peaks of around 700. It’ll be interesting to see if this new batch of content proves popular and helps to revive interest in the flagging game.