Evolve looks to boost dwindling player base with free weekend

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Turtle Rock has announced that its four-on-one shooter Evolve, including all currently available DLC characters and content included with the Hunt 2.0 update that went out earlier this month, will be free for everyone this weekend.

Evolve's Hunting Season One and the playable Behemoth Monster will go free at 12:01 am PT on September 4, and remain open to all for 24 hours. At 12:01 am PT on September 5, the freebie will switch to the characters and content included with Hunting Season 2, which will also stay free for everyone for 24 hours. Anyone who purchases the game once the weekend is over will retain the progress they earned during the free play period, except for DLC unlocks, which will revert to zero.

Turtle Rock is also dropping the Meteor Goliath monster free of charge to all players, permanently, on September 3.

It's fair to say that Turtle Rock and 2K need this weekend to be a success. Evolve is still stuck well outside the top 100 games on Steam based on player count, and its numbers continue to slide: Its 30-day player average in mid-June was a little over 600, but over the past 30 days has declined to less than 450.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.