Skybound Entertainment, which owns the rights to The Walking Dead franchise, has announced that it has terminated its contract with Starbreeze Studios and that all work on Overkills’s The Walking Dead will cease.
Overkill’s The Walking Dead, much like the developer’s Payday series, was designed to evolve and expand over time, through regular content episodes. Unfortunately, the co-op shooter’s core was far from impressive when it launched on PC last year, with Eurogamer contributor Vikki Blake calling the experience, “as sluggish and forgettable as the walkers themselves”.
Following the game’s disastrous launch and lower than expected sales, Starbreeze announced that it was embarking on a cost-cutting drive, and CEO Bo Andersson was fired by the company’s board of directors. Then, in January, Starbreeze – reportedly £34 million in debt at the time – confirmed it would be postponing the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 release of Overkill’s The Walking Dead, and that the game would no longer launch in February.
