Turtle Rock Studios' Evolve will have its servers shut down later this year, after a difficult three years.

And now. The end is near. And so Evolve faces, the final curtain. It’s always a shame when a game with such promise just doesn’t quite cut the mustard, isn’t it? Whether Evolve got a fair shake or not (opinions will differ on that one), Turtle Rock have announced that they’re shutting down the game’s servers soon.

Evolve’s is a concept that’s super interesting, by all accounts. An FPS structured around asymmetrical multiplayer, it features matches between five players: four are human ‘hunters’ and the fifth is one of the game’s various gruesome monsters. The hunters must co-operate and strategize to bring down the monster, before they all end up perforated by claws, teeth and other vicious appendages.

Right from the start, it sounded as though Turtle Rock Studios and publisher 2K Games were onto a winner here. After all, a Monster Hunter sort of deal, with a separate player taking control of the monster from a third-person perspective? What in heckola is not to like there?

The same problem that’s plagued many a promising game, that’s what. Greedy DLC shenanigans. As EA learned with the notorious pay-to-win origins of Star Wars Battlefront II, gamers are becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition to these shady practises. When Evolve launched, there were three different editions of the game, and a season pass that was clearly designed to drip-feed players content that really should’ve just been combined together.

Despite all of the bad blood that caused, the game was a commercial success, but the playerbase quickly dwindled post-launch. In July 2016, the team took a different approach to the game entirely, releasing a free-to-play version on PC. This was no great shakes either, in the end, and that same year, Turtle Rock stated that they had stopped working on the game.

This past weekend came the final blow: 2K announced that the game’s dedicated servers will be shutting down on September 8, 2018. This will close down access to the in-game store, as well as Hunt (Ranked) and the leaderboards. Stage 2 (the free-to-play PC version) goes bye-bye as well. If you still want to get yourself some in-game currency to spend, bundles will be available in the game’s store until July 2, at which point they will be removed. Players will get to keep any purchased DLC they may have had.

If you want to keep playing Evolve after that date, Legacy Evolve (the original retail version) will still be playable through peer-to-peer matchmaking. While ranked play will no longer be available, the modes Hunt, Nest, Rescue, Defend and Arena will still be playable, as will Evacuation, custom games and the limited selection of single player modes.

It’s another harsh blow for the troubled title, but as Eurogamer states, it’s hardly surprising news. The game is nowhere to be seen on Steam’s top 100 titles by concurrent users. Still, maybe it’ll get another shot someday. Stay strong, Evolve fans.