It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Overkill’s The Walking Dead was a critical and commercial flop. The shabbily made co-op shooter even resulted in the publisher Starbreeze going nearly bankrupt and barely earned more than Overkill’s Payday 2 Q4 2018.
The Walking Dead IP holder Skybound Entertainment has announced that it had terminated its contract with Starbreeze Studios and will “discontinue all efforts on Overkill’s The Walking Dead”, including cancellation of the console versions and ending support for the game on PC.
As Skybound stated:
“As of today, we have terminated our contract with Starbreeze Studios and will discontinue all efforts on Overkill’s The Walking Dead. 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.”
Skybound further stated that:
“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.”
That was a story with no happy end in sight. Hopefully, someone will do The Walking Dead IP justice in the form of a well made action game someday. Hopefully, the video game adaptations suffer the same fate as the TV series.