Dead Island and Dying Light studio Techland found itself denying rumors of an impending acquisition yet again over the weekend.
Since last year, rumors have been swirling that Microsoft is eyeing Polish and Japanese studios while it’s on a shopping spree to address its scant first-party portfolio. Techland was rumored to be one such studio. However, the company released a statement back in May 2020 to clarify that it’s not in any kind of acquisition talks.
Over the weekend, a random tweet by a Xbox podcast host started making rounds, in which he claimed that he was “fairly certain” that Microsoft was in talks to acquire Techland and make Dying Light 2 Xbox-exclusive. This prompted Techland’s Community Manager to release the following statement:
I’m getting a lot of DMs about Dying Light acquisition so I’ll answer here: There was the same rumor floating around the internet one year ago and the situation didn’t change – Techland is an independent studio and it was not acquired by another publisher.
There you have it – straight from the horse’s mouth.
While a future Techland acquisition isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility, it would make little sense for Dying Light 2 to suddenly become Xbox-exclusive given that the game has been in development for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and a recent leak showcased a collector’s edition for all platforms. Microsoft’s intention to continue shopping for studios seems to have spurred all kinds of fan theories, including one that saw Kojima Productions become part of the company!
Take it all with a grain of salt.
[Source: Twitter]
