Development studio Turtle Rock quit its efforts on its baby Evolve as of October 25, the last day where they’ll work on the game before handing over development to publisher 2K.

Turtle Rock founders Chris Ashton and Phil Robb gave melancholic but empty statements today such as “it’s always hard to leave one of our games behind” and “there will always be a special place in our hearts for past projects”. The truth is if there were any sequels planned for the near future, development would still be Turtle Rock’s responsibility as shifting everything over is a strenuous process.

Evolve went free-to-play earlier in July because it wasn’t doing well, and while the so-called Evolve: Stage 2 proved to be a success for a while, the game’s again dropped in popularity since. This is because it has some core mechanical issues that the team isn’t ready or willing to work out. Even in July-August, its best moment, Evolve was nowhere near close to the actually big multiplayer games like DoTA 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Now, the ball is in 2K’s court. Evolve is not doing too well so it’s on their in-house team to save it. Only time shall tell how they perform.