Evolve was released in 2015 by 2K and was touted as an asymmetrical multiplayer game where players take control of four hunters or one monster that gradually got stronger over the match. If the single-player idea sounds familiar, you’ve probably seen us talk about Dragon Ball: The Breakers recently.
Anyways, the game’s servers were peer-to-peer from the jump, and the game had some time in the spotlight with some post-release DLC. The game’s servers would face an early shutdown in 2018, with peer-to-peer connections still functional, but other functionality would cease, as expected.
Though, at seemingly completely random (compared to 2K’s push of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands on Steam last month), Evolve’s servers were brought back up late last night. People like SwingPoynt on Twitter pointed out Evolve’s server status, which you can see below.
. @EvolveGame SERVERS ARE BACK ONLINE
THIS IS NOT A DRILL
MATCHMAKING INCLUDED
DOWNLOADING NOW pic.twitter.com/IHNItFWh7z
— SwingPoynt (@SwingPoynt) July 23, 2022
Given that the servers going back online at this point is quite the random choice, you have to sit there and wonder, “What is 2K trying to do here?” Unfortunately, that answer isn’t clear at all. The servers this time around are fully peer-to-peer connections, and Evolve Stage 2 is the way players will be able to access the title.
However, it’s been confirmed by various sources that players who don’t own Stage 2 will still be able to play with each other. However, unless you buy the game through a code retailer, you won’t be able to purchase it. Only players who owned the game before Steam un-listing it will be able to redownload and access it. The same can be said for PlayStation and Xbox users, as searching for it in the respective stores yields no results outside of buying a physical copy.
Evolve’s return has also seen a slight spike in player numbers. According to Steam Stats, current game players have shot up from 18 on July 20 to 136 on July 22. This stat is backed up by Steam Charts, which currently reports 143 players playing at the time of writing.
Now that matchmaking is working again, players can queue up for matches. Although, the queue times would probably take forever, so… Maybe stick to P2P lobbies. Evolve is playable on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam.
