Overkill’s The Walking Dead, a cooperative first-person shooter set in AMC’s The Walking Dead universe, will be indefinitely delayed for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The Walking Dead generated a lot of hype when it was first announced by Starbreeze Studios and its Overkill Software, the studio behind Payday 2. The initial launch date was set to sometime in 2016, but the game suffered massive delays.
In January 2016, Overkill’s The Walking Dead was delayed into the second half of 2017. Then, in May 2017, the game was again delayed, pushed into the second half of 2018. At E3 2018, the launch date was set to November 2018, but the console versions were delayed to February 2019.
Despite the delays, Overkill’s The Walking Dead was generating hype through the trailers and gameplay videos being released for the co-op shooter. The Left 4 Dead formula, combined with the story-building elements of The Walking Dead universe, displayed potential. Unfortunately, when the game was finally released for the PC through Steam, the reviews were not as good as Starbreeze would have hoped.
Overkill’s The Walking Dead currently has an average score of 52 on Metacritic, with negative points including the lack of tutorials and voice chat, the long loading times, and difficulty spikes.
Amid the lukewarm reviews, Starbreeze said in a short statement that it is “currently evaluating and reviewing the performance” of the console version of The Walking Dead. The company has decided to postpone the launch of the game’s PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions, with further information regarding the new release date to be announced at a later date.
Starbreeze is coming off a difficult ending to 2018, as it filed for the Swedish equivalent of bankruptcy and fired its CEO after disappointing sales for Overkill’s The Walking Dead in November. The company is currently selling off non-core parts of its business, such as its failed virtual reality initiatives.
Another game based on the zombie franchise, Telltale’s The Walking Dead, also suffered issues in development when the studio shut down and laid off its employees. Fortunately, Skybound Games, owned by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, decided to pick up the project to give the adventures of Clementine, the protagonist of the series, the ending that it deserves.
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