Overkill’s The Walking Dead has had a troubled life. The game launched last year for PC, was met with mixed to negative reception owing to ton of issues, leading to its commercial underperformance– recently, we even had rumors that the console version of the game would be canceled altogether (though 505 Games would go on to deny that).
Now, the saga has come to the expected conclusion with Skybound Games, the license holder of The Walking Dead games (and a part of Robert Kirkman’s larger Skybound Entertainment), announcing today that they will cancel the game entirely, and stating that it did not meet the “standards of quality that [they] were promised”.
“As of today, we have terminated our contract with Starbreeze Studios and will discontinue all efforts on Overkill’s The Walking Dead,” Skybound said in a statement. “Our creators and their stories are the core of Skybound, and since 2014 we have worked hard to expand the world of The Walking Dead into an exceptional Co-op Action FPS.
“We did our best to work with Starbreeze and resolve many issues that we saw with the game, but ultimately Overkill’s The Walking Dead did not meet our standards nor is it the quality that we were promised. We are exceedingly sorry to our fans and share their disappointment in the game. We remain dedicated to providing our fans with the most premium quality content we can offer, and will continue to look for alternative video game options for the IP.”
It seems, then, that the console version will not be coming either. To me, it is mind-boggling that something so obvious, and such a conceptual slam dunk as “The Walking Dead co-op shooter” managed to get mangled up so badly, but here we are.