Overkill’s co-op focused rendition of The Walking Dead has been pushed back to the second half of 2017, according to the game’s publisher Starbreeze.
In tandem with the delay, it’s been confirmed that South Korean developer Smilegate has completed a $40 million investment with Starbreeze, a 10-year deal that will see the release of a CrossFire game in western markets. By the same token, the latter developer will have the ability to releases its own IP in Asia – most notably PayDay 2 and Overkill’s aforementioned The Walking Dead title – thus explaining the delay in production.
Originally due to launch across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC at some point in 2016, Overkill’s TWD will now launch simultaneously across the west and the east when it’s finally ready to shuffle into the wild late next year. Eager to pinpoint the ways in which it differs from both AMC’s TV series and the acclaimed episodic release from Telltale, The Walking Dead founding father Robert Kirkman was previously quoted as saying:
“One thing that we are doing, which I think is very cool about the Telltale game and the Starbreeze game and Air game is that they are all licensed games, and licensed games are usually somewhat crappy, but thankfully our’s aren’t. The key I think, which is very important, is that we’re not doing, ‘Hey, it’s Daryl Dixon running around shooting zombies, because you like Daryl Dixon.’ Or ‘It’s Rick Grimes doing this because you like Rick Grimes.’ We’re telling our own stories and doing our own things almost as if they are original games.”
It’s official: Overkill’s The Walking Dead won’t munch its way onto PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC until late 2017.
