Skybound Entertainment has terminated their contract with developer Starbreeze Studios, effectively halting all post-release support for Overkill’s The Walking Dead on PC and canceling the title’s pending console ports.
Announced through a statement provided by Skybound on Feb. 26, the move was made based on the overall lack of quality the publisher saw in the game’s PC port.
“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,” the statement read.
“We are exceedingly sorry to our fans and share their disappointment in the game.”
The version was released Nov. 6, 2018 to many mixed and some negative reviews, most of which noted issues with the title’s core gameplay features.
The developer and publisher have since been focused on providing post-release support for the game, though Skybound’s departure now means all, if any, post game support will come from Starbreeze.
Starbreeze has not provided a statement in response to Skybound’s announcement at the time of this article’s writing.
The announcement comes on the heels of massive staff and financial shakeups at Starbreeze, caused by the poor sales of Overkill’s The Walking Dead.
Following the less than ideal sales numbers and reception of the game on PC, the company booted CEO Bo Andersson, one of the founders of developer Overkill before it was acquired by Starbreeze.
This was followed by the scrapping of all of its financial goals and a filing for reconstruction in the Stockholm district court, which sent the developer’s stock values into free fall.
As such, the future of the developer and its more popular, established franchises like Payday are up in the air, and Skybound’s severance of their contract with them isn’t the best of signs.
