Starbreeze Studios has postponed the release of Overkill’s The Walking Dead on PS4 and Xbox One. Originally, the cooperative zombie shooter was set to hit consoles in February but some rough spots for its developer and poor reception to the PC version have seemingly delayed any future releases indefinitely.

According to a press release issued by Starbreeze, the company is “currently evaluating and reviewing the performance of the game” on consoles. What that means exactly is unclear, but it sounds as though the PS4 and Xbox One versions were not running at a level that Starbreeze felt was fit to publish.

Visually, the PC version of Overkill’s The Walking Dead was no slouch but it also didn’t seem like the type of game that would be demanding on modern machines. However, testing of the PC version revealed that players would need a pretty powerful machine to run the game at its highest settings.

Presumably, that lack of optimization on PC made porting the game over to PS4 and Xbox One more difficult. 4-player co-op style games are more demanding beyond just visuals as well, so Starbreeze likely had a lot of areas to get right.

The other element to consider is the poor reception to Overkill’s The Walking Dead, which led to Starbreeze’s financial struggles as of late. Back in December, the company filed for reconstruction and removed its CEO after sales projections for the game were lower than expected. Needless to say, a company with cash struggles is unlikely to invest further in the game that is fueling those issues.

While Starbreeze has yet to close the door on Overkill’s The Walking Dead, the writing does seem to be on the wall. Those that hoped to see a console release for the game will likely be waiting a while for a game that has undergone serious work, or they will never see the game at all. For now, Starbreeze’s focus is on keeping its employees paid and company running.

Source: Starbreeze