Former Left 4 Dead developer considered making Evolve free-to-play

Former Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock's next game, Evolve, was at one point mulling over the idea of making the four vs. one multiplayer shooter into a free-to-play game.

In an interview with Polygon, senior producer Mike Boccieri said the developer looked into making the game, which pits four players against a single monster player, free-to-play after a suggestion by THQ president Jason Rubin at the time. The idea was dropped when 2K purchased the title, but Turtle Rock has a "never say never" approach to the idea.

But free-to-play certainly won't be a part of Evolve's immediate future, however. "That is not going to change down the track, well, we never say never about almost anything," he said "But that's not anything that we have in the immediate horizon."

That's not to say Turtle Rock isn't looking at exploring these kind of concepts: those who preorder Evolve will get a code to download a new monster, and Boccieri said the game's original focus was broadened after THQ pointed the team towards League of Legends' hugely successful business model of selling individual characters. Does this mean Evolve will feature all sorts of purchasable characters down the line?

"The possibilities are endless, and I think the core of what people are really excited about are that there's Hunters and monsters, so we are going to play to our strengths."

For more info on Evolve, check out GameSpot's recent preview.

Evolve will be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC in 2014.