If you’ve been eagerly following the terrific tale that is The Walking Dead episodic game, but happen to live in Europe, you probably wondered where the third episode was after it released last week in the US.
In response to the delay, fans of the series complained to developer TellTale Games, blaming them of regional favoritism and poor prioritization. But TT took to Twitter to explain that they aren’t to blame, and that they gave SCEA and SCEE the game to test at the same time:
Ep 3 of TWD was submitted to SCEE at the same time as SCEA. We will update as soon as we can confirm an impending release date on PSN EU.
After tweeting it, the developer removed the message, presumably not to make it look like they are biting the hand that feeds them, but we captured a screenshot:
Seconds later, they tweeted the following:
We thank our fans so much for their patience and support. As soon as we know the PSN EU date, we’ll be able to confirm!
Yesterday, SCEE’s Fred Dutton spoke about the delay, sadly not giving a very firm release window:
Yes, I know you are and appreciate your frustration over the discrepancy with the US release. The EU code is currently in QA and will hopefully be on the store in the next couple of weeks.
Exactly why SCEE takes so much longer than SCEA is unclear – other than extra languages, the games are presumably the same, and SCEA was certain the title was fit for release a week ago. It also does seem odd that Sony doesn’t use a single global Quality Assurance system that would both save costs for them and the developer, and reduce the ‘the grass is greener on the other PSN region’ ethos that has become prevalent this gen.
What do you think about the matter? Is the extensive regional testing necessary to ensure that games are bug free, or is it a needless hassle that alienates gamers? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
