Nearly Three Months After F2P Launch, Microtransactions Come To Evolve Stage 2

Since its July 7 relaunch, Evolve Stage 2 has been the best kind of free-to-play game: the kind without a cash shop. That changes today, but Turtle Rock Studios is doing everything it can to make sure the transition is as painless as possible for players.

Evolve players in the United States can now use real money to purchase Gold Keys, which players can use to unlock the various hunters, monsters, and skins in the game. Turtle Rock is taking things slowly, only implementing Gold Keys in the U.S., with plans to roll them out into other territories if things go well.

As the studio's co-founders put it, they want to make sure they're not "drinking from a firehose" with their first foray into microtransactions. Also, there's the usual line of "no pay-to-win bullshit." Silver Keys, Evolve's in-game currency for unlocking items, remain unchanged.

You can read all about the new Evolve cash shop in a blog on the game's site. As these things go, I think it seems like a pretty good implementation; Turtle Rock is up front about the need for profitability, and the incremental rollout should help make things run smoothly with any irritations being relatively small and localized.