Telltale Games’ executive producer Kevin Boyle and the studio’s co-founder Kevin Bruner have hinted that the second season of The Walking Dead might allow PlayStation 3 save files to transfer over to the upcoming PlayStation 4.
One of the most disappointing bits of news that Sony confirmed during their PlayStation 4 reveal last month, was that PS3 game saves would not be compatible with the PS4. While this would be little more than an inconvenience for most PS3 games played via the PlayStation Cloud on the next-gen console, it would be a deal breaker for future episodes of The Walking Dead, which are heavily tailored by player choice.
Speaking to IGN at the BAFTA Game Awards, Boyle suggested there might be good news on the question of PS3 game saves, saying:
“Season 2 will read what you did in Season 1 and that will tailor some of the things that happened in Season 2. They’ll be a lot more social and in-between episode features for Season 2 that definitely exploit what the new platforms have to offer. We’re super-excited about PlayStation 4 and what all the other big console manufacturers have in store.”
Kevin Bruner then added, “We’re in close contact with Sony and they understand what is the secret recipe of The Walking Dead so expect that we’ll be talking about it soon.”
With every bit of (potential) good news there is always another shoe waiting to drop, and The Walking Dead is no exception to this rule. EuroGamer is reporting that Telltale’s CEO, Dan Connors, has pegged the target release window for the second season of The Walking Dead at sometime around “Fall next year”.
Considering the episodic nature of the game, this is likely much longer than fans were expecting to have to wait between seasons. To soften the blow, Connors re-confirmed that the studio is planning to release something TWD-related between now and Fall 2014, and they will “probably have something to announce fairly soon”. He then added, “It’ll be different”.
So, a bit of a potential good news, really bad news, possible good news situation for fans of Telltale’s The Walking Dead. Personally, I can tell you that Fall 2014 is about one year longer than I was expecting to have to wait for season two. Once the shock wears off, I’ll let you know how I feel about that.
[Update] Telltale Games has issued a statement clarifying that The Walking Dead season two release window is Fall 2013, and not Fall 2014 as originally reported. The exact statement provided to Joystiq reads:
“The current estimated release window for season two of The Walking Dead is for fall of ‘this’ year (2013), and not ‘next’ year (2014) as has been reported after a recent interview. We apologize for any confusion and thank you and all of our fans for your continued excitement for Telltale’s series.”
Speaking on behalf of the entire WGTC gaming staff, Woo-Hoo!
