When Overkill Software was first revealed to be working on a video game based on The Walking Dead franchise there was some general interest. These were the famed developers who brought out the PayDay franchise which proved to be a great multiplayer experience and that’s exactly what it looked like we were getting with The Walking Dead. In a lot of ways, this looked like a title that would resemble Left 4 Dead where a group of survivors must work together in completing objectives while battling against the undead. However, when the game released, it failed to meet the expectations fans put toward the game.
This FPS cooperative game was met with a ton of backlash from fans who felt that the game was rushed and dated. It received so many poor reviews that the title only released on the PC platform while console video game releases were delayed indefinitely. As a result of all this, the publisher behind the game, Starbreeze Publishing, was under fire. This actually cost the CEO of Starbreeze Publishing, Bo Andersson, his job.
Now a new email has found its way to the public from Bo Andersson which was sent to the developers that handled The Walking Dead. Within the email, Andersson spoke of his hardship he had to endure during the development of the video game and ultimately blamed them for the poor sales.
“Personally though I lost all my money, my family in divorce and my kids custody through the toil over the last 2-3 years working 100 hour weeks for Starbreeze and keeping you devs paid and in the game. With less and less developers willing to put in the extra care in a product it clearly limits the possible result of enough quality in time. This is a new era and I did not leave the old one and adapt in time – my fault. It’s ok – its new time.”
At any rate, there have been developers who spoke out saying that they knew the game was going to fail despite the amount of time and effort they put into the game. It’s likely that the console versions of the game will never see a release into the market and maybe this means we’re going to see the video game industry take a rest from trying to deliver a game based on The Walking Dead franchise after the final season from Telltale Games fully releases.
[Source: Eurogamer]