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Evolution Studios

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Evolution Studios Ltd.
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Founded1999; 25 years ago (1999)
Founder
Defunct2016; 8 years ago (2016)
SuccessorCodemasters Cheshire
Headquarters
Runcorn, Cheshire
,
England
ProductsWorld Rally Championship series
MotorStorm series
Driveclub
Number of employees
about 60[citation needed]
ParentSIE Worldwide Studios (2007–2016)

Evolution Studios Ltd. was a British video game developer based in Runcorn, Cheshire. The company was founded in 1999 by Martin Kenwright and Ian Hetherington, following the purchase of their studio Digital Image Design's publisher Ocean Software by Infogrames. Kenwright then left Digital Image Design with six members of staff to form Evolution Studios.

Company history

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Then based in Frodsham, Cheshire, it developed a racing demo on PC, depicting multiple rally cars racing on a circuit with cockpit views, which was subsequently picked up by Sony as it was interested in a PlayStation 2 game based on the World Rally Championship licence.

Both Evolution and their satellite studio, Bigbig Studios, in Warwickshire were acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in September 2007.[1] At this point, Kenwright and Hetherington left the company, with its co-founder Mick Hocking taking over, running Evolution, Bigbig and Studio Liverpool as Group Studio Director. Hocking was subsequently promoted to Vice President of the Studio Group in April 2011.

The developer's last game was Driveclub. It was scheduled as a PlayStation 4 launch title, although it was ultimately delayed, until October 2014.[2] They claim they had trademarked the name of the game almost 10 years ago, but were waiting for the technology to create their vision of the game.[citation needed]

On 23 March 2015, 55 staff members were cut from Evolution Studio, which sources say is approximately half of the studio. The redundancies have been described by Sony as a way to focus the studio on developing Driveclub as a service.[3] On 22 March 2016, Sony announced that Evolution Studios was closed.[4]

On 11 April 2016, the development team joined Codemasters[5] as Codemasters EVO, which would be renamed as Codemasters Cheshire. After the disappointing sales of their next game Onrush, several members of the Codemasters Cheshire development division were let go in redundancies, including game director Paul Rustchynsky, and the division was shifted to a support role for other Codemasters titles.[6] In May 2022, the team at Codemasters Cheshire was merged into Criterion Games, an EA subsidiary.[7]

Games developed

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Year Game Platform(s) GameRankings Metacritic Notes
2001 World Rally Championship PlayStation 2 81.33%[8] 80/100[9]
2002 WRC II Extreme 82.33%[10] —
2003 WRC 3 79.38%[11] —
2004 WRC 4 81.86%[12] —
2005 WRC: Rally Evolved 79.81%[13] —
2006 MotorStorm PlayStation 3 82.43%[14] 84/100[15]
2008 MotorStorm: Pacific Rift 82.49%[16] 82/100[17]
2011 MotorStorm: Apocalypse 78.34%[18] 77/100[19]
2012 MotorStorm: RC PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita 78.35%[20] 78/100[21]
2014 Driveclub PlayStation 4 70.72%[22] 71/100[23]

References

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  1. ^ "TGS: Sony buys MotorStorm dev". Eurogamer.net. 20 September 2007. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  2. ^ "DriveClub Delisted and Taken Offline - Let's Talk About One of PS4's Best Racers". Pushsquare.com. 31 March 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  3. ^ "DriveClub developer Evolution set to lose 55 staff, sources say". Eurogamer. 23 March 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  4. ^ Brightman, James (22 March 2016). "Sony confirms closure of Evolution Studios". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  5. ^ Pearson, Dan (11 April 2016). "Evolution Studios joins Codemasters, Hocking becomes VP of product". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  6. ^ "Layoffs at OnRush dev Evo, Driveclub director Rushy let go". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  7. ^ Subhan, Ishraq (12 May 2022). "EA merges Criterion and Codemasters Cheshire to work on Need For Speed". Eurogamer. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  8. ^ "World Rally Championship Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  9. ^ "World Rally Championship Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  10. ^ "WRC II Extreme Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  11. ^ "WRC 3 Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  12. ^ "WRC 4 Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  13. ^ "WRC: Rally Evolved Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  14. ^ "MotorStorm Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  15. ^ "MotorStorm Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  16. ^ "MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  17. ^ "MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  18. ^ "MotorStorm: Apocalypse Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  19. ^ "MotorStorm: Apocalypse Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  20. ^ "MotorStorm: RC Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  21. ^ "MotorStorm: RC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  22. ^ "Driveclub Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  23. ^ "Driveclub Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
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