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Left 4 Dead, Evolve dev Turtle Rock now working on "dark fantasy" free-to-play co-op FPS for Perfect World

Turtle Rock is still focused on co-op FPS, but it's pretty over boxed retail releases.

left_4_dead

Left 4 Dead and Evolve developer Turtle Rock has announced its next project - a free-to-play co-op FPS published by Perfect World.

Although it's not ready to give many details, the studio confirmed with GamesIndustry that it's a new IP.

"What we can say is that we are definitely going back to our moment-to-moment gameplay roots with a huge focus on co-op FPS," president Steve Goldstein said.

"There will be plenty of baddies to shoot up, but it is not a 'zombie game' or anything post-apocalyptic. What we can say right now is there's a strong dark fantasy element to it."

In the full interview, Turtle Rock waxes lyrical on "service-oriented games", which give developed the chance to release and iterate while working with the community.

"To us, boxed product is like a speech, a developer is telling something to its audience and they have to listen," Goldstein said.

"With free-to-play, it's a conversation and we love that dialog with our players."

Goldstein also said that the traditional $60 boxed product model "is just not a welcome home for independent developers".

"The major publishers out there are spending [over] $100 million on developing the next iteration of a franchise, and at the same time, they are increasingly hesitant to spend on new IP."

The full interview is a really interesting read and includes this delightful little comment about adapting games based on player feedback with the boxed release model:

"At best, you can only hope to make these changes sometime post-launch and at that point, you're probably knee-deep in DLC, because that's what a boxed product needs to make a profit these days, given the insanely escalating costs of development, marketing and publishing those products. It's not a very limber process."

Evolve, of course, was criticised for its very expensive DLC. It went free to play in July but development ended four months later.

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Left 4 Dead

Xbox 360, PC

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Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

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Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

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