Evolution Studios

Evolution Studios
Subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment
Industry Computer and video games
Predecessor Bigbig Studios
Founded 1999
Founder Martin Kenwright
Ian Hetherington
Mick Hocking
Headquarters Runcorn, Cheshire, United Kingdom
Key people
 Mick Hocking (Group Studio Director)
Products World Rally Championship series (2001–5)
MotorStorm series (2006–)
Owner Sony Corporation
Parent Independent (1999–2007)
SCE Worldwide Studios (2007–)
Website http://www.evos.net/

Evolution Studios Ltd. is a British video game developer. The company was founded in 1999 by Martin Kenwright (Digital Image Design) and Ian Hetherington (Psygnosis), following the purchase of DID's publisher Ocean Software by Infogrames. Kenwright left DID with six members of staff to form Evolution Studios.

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.

Evolution is now headquartered in Runcorn, Cheshire.

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 SCE Studio Liverpool as Group Studio Director. Hocking was subsequently promoted to Vice President of the Studio Group in April 2011.

The developer's latest game was Driveclub. It was scheduled as a PS4 launch title, although it was ultimately delayed, until October 2014. 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.

In March 2015, 55 staff members were cut from Evolution Studio, which sources say is approximately half the studio. The restructure has been described by Sony as a way to focus the studio on developing Driveclub as a service. [2]

Games developed

Year Game Platform(s) GameRankings Metacritic Notes
2001 World Rally Championship PlayStation 2 81.33%[3] 80/100[4] First game ever developed
2002 WRC II Extreme 82.33%[5] N/A
2003 WRC 3 79.38%[6] N/A
2004 WRC 4 81.86%[7] N/A
2005 WRC: Rally Evolved 79.81%[8] N/A Last WRC and PlayStation 2 game developed
2006 MotorStorm PlayStation 3 82.43%[9] 84/100[10]
2008 MotorStorm: Pacific Rift 82.49%[11] 82/100[12]
2011 MotorStorm: Apocalypse 78.34%[13] 77/100[14]
2012 MotorStorm: RC PlayStation 3
PlayStation Vita 		77.95%[15] 78/100[16] Last MotorStorm and PlayStation 3 game developed
2014 Driveclub PlayStation 4 70.55%[17] 71/100[18]

References

  1. ↑ TGS: Sony buys MotorStorm dev News // PS3 /// Eurogamer
  2. ↑ "DriveClub developer Evolution set to lose 55 staff, sources say". Eurogamer. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "World Rally Championship Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  4. ↑ "World Rally Championship Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "WRC II Extreme Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "WRC 3 Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  7. ↑ "WRC 4 Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  8. ↑ "WRC: Rally Evolved Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  9. ↑ "MotorStorm Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  10. ↑ "MotorStorm Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  11. ↑ "MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  12. ↑ "MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  13. ↑ "MotorStorm: Apocalypse Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  14. ↑ "MotorStorm: Apocalypse Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  15. ↑ "MotorStorm: RC Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  16. ↑ "MotorStorm: RC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  17. ↑ "Driveclub Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  18. ↑ "Driveclub Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 July 2014.

External links