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Starbreeze stock in freefall since the release of The Walking Dead.

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
https://www.vg247.com/2018/11/19/starbreeze-stock-freefall/

Starbreeze’s stock has been in decline since June and it looks like the recent release of The Walking Dead hasn’t helped at all.

Just before E3 this year, Starbreeze’s stock took a huge nosedive, falling from 16.95 SEK ($1.88) to 9.93 SEK ($1.10) per share.

On November 6, the same day Overkill’s The Walking Dead launched for PC in North America, the company posted pre-tax loss of $11.3 million for Q3 2018 – triple the loss of the previous year.

It is now well over a week since the game launched on Steam, and it has a mixed reception and a peak concurrent player count of just 14,292. In comparison, Payday 2’s peak was 247,628, although that figure was admittedly helped along by a promotion where the game was offered for free for a limited time.
 

TeamGhobad

Banned
the initial trailer had a lot of buzz over it and it was going to be a mature zombie game and bla bla bla

if i ever start a VG company i would call it NOZOMBIE Games

edit: the initial trailer seemed to me to be more of a SP story based game

 
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Walking Dead is not a strong IP anymore.

Therefore, I'm not surprised. We have entered the late-generation period of game releases, where there's a glut of new games available plus 5 years of games already in the library. This is when the majority of "hidden gems" and tragic failures release during a system's lifespan. If your game isn't unique or at least best-in-class, you aren't going to get those sales.
 

Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
didn't even know that game was out. is it any good?

It's fun in co-op with friends (doesn't work as well with strangers once you know what you're doing and they don't), but the actual game holding the experience together is pretty trash.
 

TimFL

Member
Walking Dead is not a strong IP anymore.

...
This. They took way too long getting this out. I remember it being revealed/talked about years ago but they had delay after delay.

Doesn't help that the game looks nothing like their obvious baked trailers (I absolutely remember one of they lead devs saying that the trailers are IG models and that they'll have the detail and animations you see in the videos, lmao).
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I was REALLY confused by the release date. Didn't they say it was pushed to February 2019, and then suddenly it was out? I swore I saw a thread on here mentioning that, then Steam told me it was out. My immediate reaction was, "....Huh?"
 

Blam

Member
Sorta their fault for releasing such a massive pile of shit, which you can't even play by yourself with AI.
 

Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
A lengthy and problematic development usually does not bode well for a game. Overkills TWD started on its own engine but ended up using it as a plugin within UE4, which set some delays.

Its a shame that it took so long and the end result from a visual perspective just isn't there. It reminds me of that other Walking Dead game, Survival Instinct, and that was not a great game either.
 

Castef

Banned
The game is actually not very good.

Most of all, it does not resemble that long development cycle and it has been published in bad shape.

I miss the old Starbreeze. :(
 

zombrex

Member
Shipped sailed a long time ago for walking dead games. Everyone already got their fix, and goodwill towards walking dead fps games was likely hurt by the crappy Activision fps and other phone games.
 

Melubas

Member
Oh, Starbreeze made this? I've been a huge fan of theirs ever since Enclave. Chronicles of Riddick, Syndicate and the Darkness are all really good games (with Syndicate not as good as the others). Too bad it got bad reviews. Maybe I'll try it out anyway.
 
Not in a million years could Payday be in the same league as GTA.

You only think that way because we don't have the same vision. I can imagine a Payday game with the scope of GTA V but making it would require budget and time that this company sadly doesn't have.

It's a crying shame, the darkness, chronicles of Riddick and Syndicate were all great games. Most of the talent who made them so great are gone now. These guys last generation had a great expectation about them. Not so much now...
 
No, wait a second.
I can't really remember another time in which a game from a ratherly important software house came out all of a sudden without being properly marketed. This is absolutely nuts.
Btw the game looks like a bootleg version of Left 4 Dead, unfortunately.
What were they thinking? What are the reasons about all of this?
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
SS3 might not even be completed after the failure that Underworld Ascendant was...

I dunno if I want it to be completed, for the same reason.... What a freaking shame...
 
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The Walking Dead's hype died a couple of years ago. They should have remastered The Darkness instead. I still dream of playing that game on PC someday...
 
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BibiMaghoo

Member
I loved the first Payday game but the second one annoyed me no end. I stopped counting at 30 DLC packs and then they added MT's on top. It was a disgrace. I had hoped they would correct this mess with the third game but I guess that may not happen now. I have no idea why they tried to make a walking dead game, when their staple franchise was a Left 4 Dead clone in a different setting...with a cross over level. Like, you and Valve already made that game. Overused branding isn't going to make millions of people want it again.
 

B-cell

Neo Member
So does it mean system shock 3 is in trouble? especially after negative reception of underworld ascendant??
 
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