Starbreeze studios haven’t had the best of luck lately it seems and that misfortune looks set to continue as they have had to pull Overkill’s The Walking Dead, which was due to release next month on consoles, until a future undisclosed date. The studios reasoning behind this is mostly performance related, as they are quoted to have said they are “currently evaluating and reviewing its performance.”
Their run of hardship started when Overkill’s The Walking Dead PC release didn’t live up to the company’s high expectations which resulted in low sales and then swiftly followed by a discount on Steam, but in spite of the decision to lower the price, Starbreeze Studio’s pre-tax loss tripled to $11.3m in Q3 2018. In an aim to remain positive and move forward, Starbreeze parted ways with its CEO Bo Andersson who also step down from the Board of Directors as well.
You would think all of that was enough to bring any company to its knees, but to add insult to injury last year we saw Starbreeze’s headquarters receiving a surprise visit from the Swedish authorities due to “gross insider crimes” involving an individual who works at the company who was suspected of insider trading, which lead to the employee subsequently being arrested.
GamesIndustry received a statement from Ann Charlotte Svensson, who is Starbreeze’s investor relations chief, in which she states that:
“On Wednesday Swedish Economic Crime Authority has conducted a search query at Starbreeze AB. The company has been informed that this has occurred due to suspicions of insider charges. The company as such is not subject to any suspicion. The company cooperates fully with the Swedish Economic Crime Authority. The event does not affect the company or the ongoing business reconstruction.”
A lot of fans have had high hopes for Overkill’s The Walking Dead, myself being one of them, so I can only hope that Starbreeze can pull something out of the bag and polish up this title for release on consoles as in theory, the game has a lot going for it, but it is now up to the studio to make some magic happen. Here’s hoping that the time they need to work on it more means that we will see a much better version of the PC release.
The post Overkill’s The Walking Dead Has Been Delayed on Consoles While Studio Reviews Its Performance by Rachael Fiddis appeared first on DualShockers.