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* CreatorKiller: Dangerously close to becoming one for both OVERKILL Software and Starbreeze at this point after its flop[[note]]Though not the only reason; both studios had lost most of their money on the game's TroubledProduction and a series of bad investments and needed ''Walking Dead'' to do well to right the ship, which it didn't do[[/note]] and just to add insult to injury, [[https://www.pcgamer.com/overkills-the-walking-dead-is-over-did-not-meet-our-standards-publisher-says/ the license holder, Skybound Entertainment, terminated their contract with Starbreeze]] before OVERKILL could even finish Season 2, pulling the game from stores. Simply put, neither company had money at this point to continue game development, and ''Walking Dead'' could no longer provide income, leaving the developers up a creek without a paddle[[note]]the only other series of note that they had was [[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist the]] ''[[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist PAYDAY]]'' [[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist series]], whose [[VideoGame/PAYDAY2 second installment]] had just wrapped up its post-launch support in the days before ''Walking Dead'' was released, leaving them with no income aside from residual sales[[/note]]. The situation was so dire that, despite selling off most of their studios, publishing rights, and other property, they had to break their promise of ''PAYDAY 2'''s "Ultimate Edition" marking the end of paid DLC content and start developing more content (free and paid) for the game a year after support had originally ended in order to make enough money to develop a sequel; a sequel that wasn't due for at least another three years.
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* CreatorKiller: Dangerously close to becoming one for both OVERKILL Software and Starbreeze at this point after its flop[[note]]Though not the only reason; both studios had lost most of their money on the game's TroubledProduction and a series of bad investments and needed ''Walking Dead'' to do well to right the ship, which it didn't do[[/note]] and just to add insult to injury, [[https://www.pcgamer.com/overkills-the-walking-dead-is-over-did-not-meet-our-standards-publisher-says/ the license holder, Skybound Entertainment, terminated their contract with Starbreeze]] before OVERKILL could even finish Season 2, pulling the game from stores. Simply put, neither company had money at this point to continue game development, and ''Walking Dead'' could no longer provide income, leaving the developers up a creek without a paddle[[note]]the only other series of note that they had was [[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist the]] ''[[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist PAYDAY]]'' [[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist series]], whose [[VideoGame/PAYDAY2 second installment]] had just wrapped up its post-launch support in the days before ''Walking Dead'' was released, leaving them with no income aside from residual sales[[/note]]. The situation was so dire that, despite selling off most of their studios, publishing rights, and other property, they had to break their promise of ''PAYDAY 2'''s "Ultimate Edition" marking the end of paid DLC content and start developing more content (free and paid) for the game a year after support had originally ended in order to make enough money to develop [[VideoGame/PAYDAY3 a sequel; sequel]]; a sequel that wasn't due for at least another three years.
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* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain the game is only through gray market key reselling sites. That and if one managed to buy anyway, while the servers are still up (for now), very few people are still playing.
to:
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain the game is only through gray market key reselling sites. That and if one managed to buy anyway, while the servers are still up (for now), very few people are still playing. A developer build that can be played offline was leaked, but is of course of questionable legality.
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* ContentLeak: On October 20, 2023, a dev build for the game was leaked on 4chan's /v/ board, containing not only having all the content the public build has with the online DRM removed, but the finished and unreleased 4 episodes of content. Episodes 8 and 9 are still missing, however.
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* ContentLeak: On October 20, 2023, a dev build for the game was leaked on 4chan's /v/ board, containing not only having all the content the public build has with the online DRM removed, but the finished and unreleased 4 episodes of content. Episodes 8 and 9 are still missing, however.up to Episode 7.
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* ContentLeak: On October 20, 2023, a dev build for the game was leaked on 4chan's /v/ board, containing not only having all the content the public build has with the online DRM removed, but the finished and unreleased 4 episodes of content. Episodes 8 and 9 are still missing, however.
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* TroubledProduction: According to [[https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-01-28-the-fall-of-swedish-game-wonder-starbreeze several Starbreeze and Overkill developers]], ''VideoGame/OverkillsTheWalkingDead'' had massive troubles behind the scenes.
** Development had begun on the Valhalla game engine Starbreeze had purchased in 2015, departing from the aging Diesel game engine previously used in ''VideoGame/PaydayTheHeist'' and ''VideoGame/Payday2''. Unfortunately, Valhalla was in a very early stage of development and in no shape to be used, lacking even a function to open files. Those who worked with Valhalla had nothing good to say about the engine, calling it "a piece of shit", "unworkable" and "an insane waste of money". Developers begged management to move the game to the proven Unreal game engine, which was finally granted after two years of development on Valhalla. The game was pushed back to 2018, but that only left the team a single year to build the game, many of whom had no prior experience working with Unreal.
** Mismanagement plagued the game and the company at large. The release of ''VideoGame/RAIDWorldWarII'' while ''Payday 2'' was still receiving regular content updates, left many at Starbreeze confused as to why they were competing against their own game, which helped ''RAID'' drop to a mere 40 concurrent players within three months of release. Starbreeze was also spending money on ill-advised projects, with tens of millions dumped into failed Virtual Reality projects and on promotional crossovers with [[Film/JohnWick various]] [[Film/Scarface1983 Hollywood]] [[Film/HardcoreHenry films]].
** On the game itself, producers would make wild demands for features based on the latest games they had seen, such as ''Franchise/FarCry'' and ''VideoGame/DyingLight'', only to change their mind within weeks. The showcase at E3 2018 had management assuring the team that reactions to the game were glowingly positive, even as team members saw news and videos showing that actual impressions had been lukewarm at best. The team was forced to work up to 100 hours a week during the last months of development to get the game done by the deadline, severely affecting the mental and physical well-being of many working on the game. By the end of development, the team had been thoroughly disillusioned about the quality of the game.
** When the game released in November 2018, it staggered out as an ObviousBeta that was panned for being riddled with glitches and various online issues, and others criticized the game's pacing and gunplay. Expected to sell millions of copies, it fell disastrously short of Starbreeze's expectations and Starbreeze's stock price went into freefall. The company would continue to be rocked by bad news throughout the year as the beginning of December saw Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson leave his post as the company announced it was [[https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-12-03-things-are-looking-grim-for-starbreeze-after-overkills-the-walking-dead-flop filing for reconstruction]]. Two days later, Starbreeze would have their offices [[https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-12-05-arrest-made-in-starbreeze-office-raid raided by police]], who arrested at least one person and confiscated multiple computers on suspicion of insider trading. In February 2019, Starbreeze had the license to ''The Walking Dead'' [[https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/the-walking-dead-creators-kill-overkills-the-walking-dead-game-1203150365/ ripped away]], removing the game from digital storefronts and cancelling planned releases on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Starbreeze came dangerously close to [[CreatorKiller shutting its doors entirely]], and would only regain stability after a year of restructuring, selling off most of its assets, and resuming active development for ''PAYDAY 2''.
** Development had begun on the Valhalla game engine Starbreeze had purchased in 2015, departing from the aging Diesel game engine previously used in ''VideoGame/PaydayTheHeist'' and ''VideoGame/Payday2''. Unfortunately, Valhalla was in a very early stage of development and in no shape to be used, lacking even a function to open files. Those who worked with Valhalla had nothing good to say about the engine, calling it "a piece of shit", "unworkable" and "an insane waste of money". Developers begged management to move the game to the proven Unreal game engine, which was finally granted after two years of development on Valhalla. The game was pushed back to 2018, but that only left the team a single year to build the game, many of whom had no prior experience working with Unreal.
** Mismanagement plagued the game and the company at large. The release of ''VideoGame/RAIDWorldWarII'' while ''Payday 2'' was still receiving regular content updates, left many at Starbreeze confused as to why they were competing against their own game, which helped ''RAID'' drop to a mere 40 concurrent players within three months of release. Starbreeze was also spending money on ill-advised projects, with tens of millions dumped into failed Virtual Reality projects and on promotional crossovers with [[Film/JohnWick various]] [[Film/Scarface1983 Hollywood]] [[Film/HardcoreHenry films]].
** On the game itself, producers would make wild demands for features based on the latest games they had seen, such as ''Franchise/FarCry'' and ''VideoGame/DyingLight'', only to change their mind within weeks. The showcase at E3 2018 had management assuring the team that reactions to the game were glowingly positive, even as team members saw news and videos showing that actual impressions had been lukewarm at best. The team was forced to work up to 100 hours a week during the last months of development to get the game done by the deadline, severely affecting the mental and physical well-being of many working on the game. By the end of development, the team had been thoroughly disillusioned about the quality of the game.
** When the game released in November 2018, it staggered out as an ObviousBeta that was panned for being riddled with glitches and various online issues, and others criticized the game's pacing and gunplay. Expected to sell millions of copies, it fell disastrously short of Starbreeze's expectations and Starbreeze's stock price went into freefall. The company would continue to be rocked by bad news throughout the year as the beginning of December saw Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson leave his post as the company announced it was [[https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-12-03-things-are-looking-grim-for-starbreeze-after-overkills-the-walking-dead-flop filing for reconstruction]]. Two days later, Starbreeze would have their offices [[https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-12-05-arrest-made-in-starbreeze-office-raid raided by police]], who arrested at least one person and confiscated multiple computers on suspicion of insider trading. In February 2019, Starbreeze had the license to ''The Walking Dead'' [[https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/the-walking-dead-creators-kill-overkills-the-walking-dead-game-1203150365/ ripped away]], removing the game from digital storefronts and cancelling planned releases on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Starbreeze came dangerously close to [[CreatorKiller shutting its doors entirely]], and would only regain stability after a year of restructuring, selling off most of its assets, and resuming active development for ''PAYDAY 2''.
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* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain the game is only through gray market key reselling sites. That and if one managed to buy anyway, while the servers are still up (for now), very few people are still playing.
to:
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain the game is only through gray market key reselling sites. That and if one managed to buy anyway, while the servers are still up (for now), very few people are still playing.playing.
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* CreatorKiller: Dangerously close to becoming one for both OVERKILL Software and Starbreeze at this point after its flop and just to add insult to injury, [[https://www.pcgamer.com/overkills-the-walking-dead-is-over-did-not-meet-our-standards-publisher-says/ the license holder, Skybound Entertainment, terminated their contract with Starbreeze]] before OVERKILL could even finish Season 2. Simply put, neither company has money at this point to continue game development, ''Walking Dead'' can't be turned into profit anymore and further development of ''[[VideoGame/Payday2 PAYDAY 2]]'' is out of the question now that OVERKILL has finished its story arc and milked all the money they could from the game.
to:
* CreatorKiller: Dangerously close to becoming one for both OVERKILL Software and Starbreeze at this point after its flop flop[[note]]Though not the only reason; both studios had lost most of their money on the game's TroubledProduction and a series of bad investments and needed ''Walking Dead'' to do well to right the ship, which it didn't do[[/note]] and just to add insult to injury, [[https://www.pcgamer.com/overkills-the-walking-dead-is-over-did-not-meet-our-standards-publisher-says/ the license holder, Skybound Entertainment, terminated their contract with Starbreeze]] before OVERKILL could even finish Season 2. 2, pulling the game from stores. Simply put, neither company has had money at this point to continue game development, and ''Walking Dead'' can't be turned into profit anymore and further development of ''[[VideoGame/Payday2 PAYDAY 2]]'' is out of could no longer provide income, leaving the question now developers up a creek without a paddle[[note]]the only other series of note that OVERKILL has finished they had was [[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist the]] ''[[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist PAYDAY]]'' [[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist series]], whose [[VideoGame/PAYDAY2 second installment]] had just wrapped up its story arc post-launch support in the days before ''Walking Dead'' was released, leaving them with no income aside from residual sales[[/note]]. The situation was so dire that, despite selling off most of their studios, publishing rights, and milked all other property, they had to break their promise of ''PAYDAY 2'''s "Ultimate Edition" marking the end of paid DLC content and start developing more content (free and paid) for the game a year after support had originally ended in order to make enough money they could from the game.to develop a sequel; a sequel that wasn't due for at least another three years.
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* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain the game is only through gray market key reselling sites. That and if one managed to buy anyway, it's doubtful that the servers are running for multiplayer.
to:
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain the game is only through gray market key reselling sites. That and if one managed to buy anyway, it's doubtful that while the servers are running for multiplayer.still up (for now), very few people are still playing.
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* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain has been through gray market key reselling sites.
to:
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain has been the game is only through gray market key reselling sites.sites. That and if one managed to buy anyway, it's doubtful that the servers are running for multiplayer.
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* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain has been through shady gray market keys.
to:
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain has been through shady gray market keys.key reselling sites.
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Changed line(s) 1 (click to see context) from:
* CreatorKiller: Dangerously close to becoming one for both OVERKILL Software and Starbreeze at this point after its flop and just to add insult to injury, [[https://www.pcgamer.com/overkills-the-walking-dead-is-over-did-not-meet-our-standards-publisher-says/ the license holder, Skybound Entertainment, terminated their contract with Starbreeze]] before OVERKILL could even finish Season 2. Simply put, neither company has money at this point to continue game development, ''Walking Dead'' can't be turned into profit anymore and further development of ''[[VideoGame/Payday2 PAYDAY 2]]'' is out of the question now that OVERKILL has finished its story arc and milked all the money they could from the game.
to:
* CreatorKiller: Dangerously close to becoming one for both OVERKILL Software and Starbreeze at this point after its flop and just to add insult to injury, [[https://www.pcgamer.com/overkills-the-walking-dead-is-over-did-not-meet-our-standards-publisher-says/ the license holder, Skybound Entertainment, terminated their contract with Starbreeze]] before OVERKILL could even finish Season 2. Simply put, neither company has money at this point to continue game development, ''Walking Dead'' can't be turned into profit anymore and further development of ''[[VideoGame/Payday2 PAYDAY 2]]'' is out of the question now that OVERKILL has finished its story arc and milked all the money they could from the game.game.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain has been through shady gray market keys.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: After the game was pulled off from Steam in February 2019, the only way to obtain has been through shady gray market keys.
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None
Added DiffLines:
* CreatorKiller: Dangerously close to becoming one for both OVERKILL Software and Starbreeze at this point after its flop and just to add insult to injury, [[https://www.pcgamer.com/overkills-the-walking-dead-is-over-did-not-meet-our-standards-publisher-says/ the license holder, Skybound Entertainment, terminated their contract with Starbreeze]] before OVERKILL could even finish Season 2. Simply put, neither company has money at this point to continue game development, ''Walking Dead'' can't be turned into profit anymore and further development of ''[[VideoGame/Payday2 PAYDAY 2]]'' is out of the question now that OVERKILL has finished its story arc and milked all the money they could from the game.
