Now, Skybound Has Officially Canceled Overkill’s The Walking Dead

Following a series of delays and cancellation reports, Skybound Entertainment has announced that Overkill’s The Walking Dead is officially cancelled. The company’s termination of its contract with developer Starbreeze Studios led to the game’s cancellation, and halts all future efforts with the co-op action title. As such, not only will a console release never come to fruition, the title will also be removed from Steam. According to a report from Variety, the latter is due to a complaint filed by Skybound, the franchise’s license holder.

Skybound announced the news in a brief statement on its official website, noting that Overkill’s The Walking Dead failed to meet the company’s quality standards. Read the statement in full below:

As of today, we have terminated our contract with Starbreeze Studios and will discontinue all efforts on OVERKILL’S THE WALKING DEAD. Our creators and their stories are the core of Skybound, and since 2014 we have worked hard to expand the world of The Walking Dead into an exceptional Co-op Action FPS. We did our best to work with Starbreeze and resolve many issues that we saw with the game, but ultimately OVERKILL’S THE WALKING DEAD did not meet our standards nor is it the quality that we were promised. We are exceedingly sorry to our fans and share their disappointment in the game. We remain dedicated to providing our fans with the most premium quality content we can offer, and will continue to look for alternative video game options for the IP.

Interestingly, Starbreeze is attempting to salvage the Skybound partnership in some regard. On its website, the developer said the two companies are discussing whether a solution can be reached that will allow Starbreeze to “finish and deliver season 2 of the game, as previously communicated.”

Overkill’s The Walking Dead launched on PC in 2018, hitting the ground with a thud. It wasn’t a fully functioning game; consequently, sales were abysmal at best. These troubles resulted in a delay for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. However, news recently surfaced that suggested the console release had been outright cancelled. Publisher 505 Games responded quickly, disputing the claims and promising development was still ongoing. Obviously, this is no longer the case.

[Source: Skybound Entertainment, Variety, Starbreeze]