Overkill’s The Walking Dead, the long awaited multiplayer zombie game from the titular Payday developer and publisher Starbreeze, is finally out on PC today. Even though it’s still just launch day, Starbreeze cemented the fact that “expectations are high” for the performance of Overkill’s The Walking Dead in their Interim Financial Report for Q3 2018 today.
Starbreeze sees Overkill’s The Walking Dead as a very pivotal releaser, both as a seasonal games-as-a-service title and as the first of eight hallmark releases for the company. Seasons 1 and 2 of the game are included in its standard edition, with new episodes coming consistently until June 2019. At that point, Starbreeze is likely to re-evaluate to game and move forward with a Season 3. That being said, they want to impress people with the initial Season 1 content so they stick with the game for the foreseeable future:
“Overkill’s The Walking Dead is an important release for Starbreeze and is obviously our main focus right now. Our expectations are high and the game received good and valuable feedback from the media and our community during the important beta phase.
The game’s business model is the one we invented and know inside out: games as a service. That means we are releasing a base game that we intend to serve with new content for a long time coming. Exactly like the cult-status TV show, we have made Overkill’s The Walking Dead as a seasonal model, in which each season consists of multiple episodes.
Gamers who buy the Standard Edition…will receive not only all episodes in Season 1, they will also get Season 2, which starts at the end of the month and continues until June next year. The author of the series, Robert Kirkman, is still involved in the production and we are looking forward to continuing our great work together. Our initial goal is to make sure Season 1 is outstanding and that we attract a big, strong, and dedicated community.”
As I mentioned before, Starbreeze also sees Overkill’s The Walking Dead as the first of eight new titles that will kick off a string of success for the company. These titles are Payday: Crime War for iOS and Android, Geminose for Nintendo Switch, Psychonauts 2, System Shock 3, 10 Crowns, a western co-op version of Crossfire, and finally Payday 3. It’s a fairly solid lineup, and Starbreeze is hoping the success of Overkill’s The Walking Dead will help carry the other titles through development.
While my personal impressions of Overkill’s The Walking Dead are mixed after trying out both the E3 demo and beta, it remains to be seen what fans and critics at-large think of the title. The game’s reception could have a noticeable impact on the game’s performance, so that’s definitely something to keep an eye on as impressions come out over the next couple of days.
You can check out the game’s recently released video highlighting the different weapons players can use below. Overkill’s The Walking Dead is now available on PC and comes to PS4 and Xbox One on February 6, 2019. The console versions of the game can be pre-ordered on Amazon.
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