Turtle Rock Studios

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Turtle Rock Studios
  • Valve (2008–2010)
  • Slamfire Inc. (2010–present)
SubsidiariesTurtle Rock Garage
Websitewww.turtlerockstudios.com

Turtle Rock Studios (known as Valve South between 2008 and 2010) is an American video game developer founded in March 2002 by Mike Booth.[2] It was acquired by Valve in 2008, but was re-founded in 2010 as a subsidiary of Slamfire Inc. by Phil Robb and Chris Ashton. Turtle Rock Studios is involved in the creation of original titles as well as the provision of consulting services to the digital entertainment industry.

The company's most notable games are: the first

Westwood Pacific, and assisted in the development of the Counter-Strike series. The company expanded from six employees to more than seventy staff members from 2011 to 2014 and opened a subsidiary company called Turtle Rock Garage in 2011, which specialized in developing casual and experimental games for platforms such as iPhone, Facebook, and Xbox Live. Tencent
acquired the company in December 2021.

History

Prior to founding

Turtle Rock Studios was founded by Michael Booth. Prior to the company's establishment, Booth, Phil Robb and Chris Ashton worked for

mod of Half-Life, and decided to join the mod team as a texture artist. Eventually, Seattle-based Valve, the publisher of Half-Life, purchased the mod, and Ashton left Westwood to join Valve. Robb and Booth remained at Westwood Studios and worked on Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge and Command & Conquer: Generals, but left the company after it was acquired by Electronic Arts, as Robb considered EA's acquisition of Westwood had resulted in the studio losing all its personality.[5]

Turtle Rock (2002-2007)

Turtle Rock Studios was founded in 2002.

first-person wizard combat game.[3][5]

As the team had developed only competitive multiplayer games before, they wanted to design a game that encouraged and supported

zombies. They also changed the texture of the game to create a gritty, dark atmosphere. It was not conceived as a full-budget project at that time. Meanwhile, the wizard combat game was scrapped as the team considered the project over-complicated and "geeky"; they decided to use the cancelled project as a prototype to work on the zombie game.[3] The idea of developing a zombie game grew after the team watched 28 Days Later, a critically acclaimed zombie film. The film helped the team brainstorm ideas for their zombie game.[3] After that, the team decided to remove all the Counter-Strike content and started developing the zombie game, in which players have to plant zombie bait and kill all the zombies present in the level. The focus later shifted to evacuating and surviving in a zombie-infested area.[5] The project was later presented to Valve, which helped the game's funding and publishing.[5] The project's name was Left 4 Dead, and its development began in 2005.[5] The title was announced on November 20, 2006, and was released in November 2008 for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox 360
.

Valve South (2008-2010)

On January 10, 2008, before the release of Left 4 Dead, Valve announced that it had purchased Turtle Rock in an effort to expand the company's console market. Gabe Newell, founder and president of Valve, added that it was an easy decision for the company to make, as they had high expectations for Left 4 Dead and considered themselves having a long-term relationship with Turtle Rock.[11] After being acquired by Valve, Turtle Rock served as Valve's in-house satellite development team, and was renamed Valve South.[12]

With the establishment of Valve South, nine to eleven employees moved to work at Valve's headquarters in Seattle. After their departure, Valve felt that the size of the team at Valve South was too small to allow it to operate as a triple A studio,[13] and that coordination between the two studios was difficult as they were physically far apart from each other.[14] Meanwhile, Turtle Rock felt that the team's communication with Valve was lacking, and they were dissatisfied with Valve and the slow progression of projects.[14] As a result, Newell proposed that Turtle Rock to be split from Valve, and that Valve South be shut down after the shipment of Left 4 Dead.[5] Valve retained the rights to the Left 4 Dead franchise, while allowing the name "Turtle Rock" and its logo to be used again by the original team. This news was later confirmed by Doug Lombardi of Valve on June 3, 2009.[12]

Turtle Rock (2010-2021)

After being formally closed, the remaining team members including Ashton and Robb decided to restart Turtle Rock as an independent company[15] on March 17, 2010.[16] On the same day, Turtle Rock Studios put up a new website announcing they had reformed and were once again working on video games. They released an iPhone automotive maintenance app named Garage Buddy and began hiring for a full-scale project.[17] Upon the company's reestablishment, Booth left the company, and Robb and Ashton were requested to share the position of studio head. Ashton initially declined it, but eventually accepted and partnered with Robb to lead the studio. Both of them considered themselves developers not managers, and they found the task of running Turtle Rock a tough challenge. At that time, there were about 13 staff members in the studio. The team later rented a warehouse and re-designed it to accommodate them.[5]

Despite being shut down by Valve, Turtle Rock still maintained a relatively close working relationship with it.

casual games.[19] On September 22, 2010, Digital Development Management announced they were representing Turtle Rock Studios to find publishers for their games.[20]

For us this is a big deal, this is our proving ground. We are not just Valve's bitch. I feel for the past 20 years we've been having to prove ourselves over and over. So here we are again, trying to prove ourselves.

 – Phil Robb, co-founder of Turtle Rock on Evolve

The concept of their next project had begun prior to the development of Left 4 Dead. Inspired by the asymmetrical mode of Left 4 Dead,

Cabela's Big Game Hunter, the team wanted to create a game where prey could strike back at hunters.[21] The concept eventually became Evolve, and was the company's next full-scale project. Turtle Rock pitched the game to multiple publishers including Valve. Most of them were not supportive of the idea of an asymmetrical multiplayer video game;[22] Valve was also not interested in the project.[5] These companies thought that Turtle Rock was too small to handle a Triple-A project.[22] Publisher THQ decided to accept the game and help with its funding. THQ's then president Danny Bilson and Jason Rubin were very enthusiastic about the idea of having an asymmetrical multiplayer game like Evolve. Rubin once hoped that Turtle Rock could develop a free-to-play business model for the game. This idea was later scrapped, and resulted in some significant changes in terms of the game's gameplay and cast.[3] On May 26, 2011, THQ announced they would be publishing Turtle Rock's next major title.[23] On June 10, 2011, THQ described Turtle Rock's next title as "wild".[24]

At that time,

2K Games, and was introduced on January 7, 2014 by gaming magazine Game Informer.[29] During the game's development, the team's size expanded to 75 staff members.[30] Originally the game was to be released in October 2014, however 2K later delayed the release date to allow Turtle Rock to further polish the game. Evolve was released worldwide on February 10, 2015, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One platforms.[31] While Evolve received generally positive reviews, the player base quickly dwindled.[32] The PC version briefly transitioned to become a free-to-play title, but 2K ultimately decided to end the game's support.[33]

In December 2016, Turtle Rock announced that the company was working on a new intellectual property to be published by

Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on October 12, 2021.[38]

As Tencent studio (2021-present)

Slamfire Inc., the parent company of Turtle Rock Studios, was acquired by Tencent in December 2021 for undisclosed terms. The studio will remain autonomous under Tencent's ownership.[39]

List of games

Turtle Rock Studios is best known for their work on

Left 4 Dead
franchises. Works include:

Year Game Publisher Platform(s)
Win
Mac
 Lin Xbox X360 PS4 PS5 XBO XS iOS Android Oculus Go Oculus Quest Nintendo Switch
2003 Counter-Strike (Xbox port)
Microsoft Game Studios
 No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No
2004 Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Sierra Entertainment Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Counter-Strike: Source Valve Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
2008 Left 4 Dead Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No No
2009 Left 4 Dead 2: The Passing Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No
2010 Left 4 Dead: The Sacrifice Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No No
Left 4 Dead 2: The Sacrifice Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No
2011 Leap Sheep! Turtle Rock Studios No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No
2015 Evolve
2K Games
 Yes No No No No Yes No Yes No No No No No No
2016
Evolve Stage 2
 		Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Face Your Fears
Oculus Studios
 Yes No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No
2017 The Well No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No
2019 Face Your Fears 2 Yes No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No
Journey of the Gods Yes No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No
2021 Back 4 Blood
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
 Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No

Left 4 Dead

AI technology, which had since been updated from the AI used for the bots in Condition Zero. The game was released on Microsoft Windows and the Xbox 360 in November 2008.[43] The game received critical acclaim. The PC version of the game received an 89 out of 100 from Metacritic, a review aggregator.[44] The title was thought to have redefined co-operative gameplay.[45] The success of Left 4 Dead led Valve to develop Left 4 Dead 2, the next installment in the series. Alongside its sequel, the franchise had collectively sold 12 million copies as of October 1, 2012.[46]

Evolve

third-person view.[47] An alpha version of the game was released on January 15, 2015.[48] The full version was released on February 10, 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While the game received generally positive reviews,[49] its extensive list of downloadable content available at launch caused controversy.[50] Nevertheless, the game shipped 2.5 million copies as of May 18, 2015,[51] and was considered as another "permanent IP" by owner Take-Two Interactive.[52] Evolve became a free-to-play game in July 2016.[53] On September 3, 2018, Evolve's dedicated servers shut down.[54]

Back 4 Blood

Turtle Rock announced

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.[55]

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External links

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