Sad news today, as news broke out that lead staff at Evolution Studios were laid off by its owner Codemasters. Evolution was best known for Playstation exclusive racing games MotorStorm and Driveclub, and most recently released the arcade racer OnRush for the PS4 and Xbox One.
Evolution Studios can’t catch a break it seems. First, the talented team failed to achieve expected success with Driveclub and now, the lackluster launch of OnRush. It was looking so good for the British development studio, too. After achieving success with several rally racers in the World Rally Championship series for the Playstation 2, Sony acquired the studio and put them to work on exclusive racing game series MotorStorm, which were meant to be system-sellers for the Playstation 3. After starting off strong with the first MotorStorm and becoming sort of a symbol for the then-new Playstation 3, sales in the series declined.
Similarly to MotorStorm, Driveclub was meant to be the game to move PS4 system in its early life, receiving considerable attention by Sony and the game media. Impressive as it was visually, a rough launch and confusion among gamers with a stripped-down Driveclub Plus version for PS Plus owners, led to Driveclub not reaching the status of a premier exclusive racer fans were hoping for. Sadly, the many updates from Evolution Studios couldn’t remedy the troubles caused during the launch.
This finally culminated in a reorganization of staff with some layoffs, when Sony decided to rework Driveclub into a “service”. Sony’s plan didn’t work out and one year later, the doors of Evolution Studios were closed for good. A punch in the gut for racing games, who held the team at Evolution in high regards. After all, Evo never produced a bad racing game in their long company history.
So, it was exciting when the folks at Evo landed on their feet, after Codemasters hired the veterans and formed a new studio. Probably to the surprise of those fans, Evo’s new project wasn’t really like their previous, big titles. Instead, we got OnRush, a multi-platform action-arcade racer which didn’t manage to set sales charts on fire, nor satisfy gamers, ending up with average reviews.
This cat doesn’t seem to have nine lives however, and Codemasters has vigorously put their hands on Evolution Studios. As Eurogamer reports, significant senior talent as beenlaid off, among those Paul “Rushy” Rustchynsky, creative mind behind MotorStorm and Driveclub. According to unnamed sources at Evo, this move by Codemasters looks like relegating the once prestigious racing game creators into a supporting role within Codemasters.
What a sad day for fans of racing games across every platform. We wish all affected by the layoffs to quickly find a new place where they can put their expertise into good work.
