Skybound Entertainment has issued a statement today explaining that due to the disappointing nature of Starbreeze Studio‘s recent Overkill’s The Walking Dead, the media company would be severing ties with the studio. The termination of the contract has led to the cancellation of the planned PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game, while the PC version’s support will be discontinued.
According to the official Skybound statement sent to Variety, the company has apologized to fans who will be disappointed by this news but stand firm in its choice to end the working relationship with the Payday 2 developer.
“We did our best to work with Starbreeze and resolve many issues that we saw with the game,” Skybound stated, “but ultimately Overkill’s The Walking Dead did not meet our standards nor is it the quality that we were promised.”
While the critical reception to Overkill’s The Walking Dead has been decidedly negative, the last official word from the game’s publisher was that the console releases had merely been postponed.
The news comes as Starbreeze Studio’s struggles with the financial results from the fourth quarter of the financial year. Overkill’s The Walking Dead has reportedly earned only $3.7 million after its launch in November, compared to the ongoing revenue from Payday 2 from the same quarter, which brought in $2.2 million.
After the announcement of these troubling results, Starbreeze AB announced that it was filing for reconstruction due to a shortage of liquidity. The move was made in an effort to create long term solutions to the publisher’s financial issues. Starbreeze also made headlines in December when its offices were raided by Swedish authorities under suspicion of illegal insider trading.
Skybound, which was founded partly by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, has promised that despite this unfortunate situation, it is committed to bringing players more content from the popular zombie franchise. Skybound also stepped in to salvage what remained of the defunct Telltale Studios when the developer was unable to complete work on the final season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead.
The final episode of the season is set to launch on March 26.
