It’s been clear since before the game even arrived that Overkill’s The Walking Dead wasn’t going to be a huge success. The game launched on PC in a pretty sorry state, resulting in poor reviews and backlash from fans. There was still a console release planned for the future though, but it saw a few delays after the PC launch was so troublesome. Now it appears that the console release is cancelled, at least on PS4 but probably on Xbox One as well.
The news wasn’t released by Starbreeze or Overkill themselves, instead leaving it to Sony to issue refunds for pre-orders of the game on PS4, which was shared on Reddit. A notice was shared by Sony saying that they had been told the game was cancelled, thus resulting in the refunds. Buyers should get the notice via email and their money should be returned over the coming days.
The problems with this game were apparent all the way back at E3 2018 where we previewed it on PC. “When my time with Overkill’s The Walking Dead was up, I felt like it had accomplished its goal of feeling exactly like the TV show and comics,” I said. “Unfortunately it also replicated the rougher patches the show has seen lately, mostly with technical bugs and other problems. The team has some time to get this stuff sorted out, but with November fast approaching, it does seem like we could see a few of these things linger into the launch.”
Closer to launch it became clear that those issues were not resolved and that The Walking Dead was poised for another disappointing release. Since launch it’s not clear what has been resolved and what has remained, with gamers mostly ignoring the title in favor of other online co-op experiences. With the PS4 version apparently cancelled and the Xbox One release likely to follow suit, it seems like things won’t be getting much better any time soon.
