Left 4 Dead and Evolve developer Turtle Rock Studios working on a new IP

Evolve game — A screenshot from Turtle Rock Studios last title, Evolve 2K Games

Turtle Rock Studios is working on an unannounced new IP, which could point to the demise of its latest property – asymmetrical online shooter Evolve – following poor sales and a poor reception from players and critics.

Job listings on the Turtle Rock website reveal that their next game will be a new IP, which is coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC and will seemingly be more narrative-led than Evolve. Turtle Rock are looking to hire a narrative director, an animation programmer, a senior rendering programmer, a senior character artist and a technical artist for the new project.

Turtle Rock made its name cutting its teeth on the Counter Strike series and co-developing CS: Source before creating the Left 4 Dead series, the first game of which launched in late 2008. The co-op multiplayer shooter tasked players with surviving against hordes of zombies, and it proved a big hit. Despite the success, Valve – who bought Turtle Rock – decided to close the studio before making a sequel itself.

Undeterred, and able to use their original name, the team at Turtle Rock started up again as an independent company.

The first project from this new company was Evolve, released in 2015, a 4 on 1 multiplayer shooter in which human hunters take on a single large, powerful monster. It was fun in short bursts but was unable to maintain its audience. A large part of this is believed to be down to a convoluted and anti-consumer plans for releasing DLC, which were announced before the main game had been released.

Publisher 2K called Evolve a "long-term franchise" when it announced 2.5 million copies had been sold, so perhaps there's hope yet for Evolve to realise its potential.