Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

https://insider-gaming.com/dying-light-developer-techland-has-canceled-2-upcoming-games/

Techland has announced that it has canceled two of its upcoming games amid a poor financial year.

The news came courtesy of a press release sent to the media yesterday, which revealed that two games had been cancelled, but resources had been moved to a yet-to-be-announced project.

It was reported that the company incurred record losses of approximately $37 million in 2024. The company had also lost roughly $25 million in 2023.

That being said, Techland has the hotly anticipated Dying Light: The Beast releasing in August 2025, which is expected to turn Techland heavily back into the green.

Cancelled Upcoming Projects

Although Techland did not officially confirm which of its projects had been canceled, Insider Gaming can report that one of the games was its fantasy action RPG game, which the team revealed in May 2022.

The game was internally known as Project Cornerstone and took heavy inspiration from the Star Wars universe, despite not being a Star Wars IP. Just like in Star Wars, players would be able to use 'the force' to move objects and also possess other abilities, such as the ability to stop time.

It's not entirely clear why the game was cancelled, but it's understood that the project struggled for some years due to poor leadership decisions, including the decision to move the game to Unreal Engine.

As for what both teams are currently working on now, Insider Gaming understands that a Call of Juarez sequel has been in development for some time, utilizing Unreal Engine (previous games were developed using Chrome Engine). The last game, developed by Techland and published by Ubisoft, was released in 2013. Publishing rights moved back to Techland in 2018.

Techland was contacted for comment, but did not respond by the time of publication. Should Techland respond, we will update this report.

UPDATE – In a statement to Insider Gaming, Techland has provided the following statement:

"Game development is never a straight line, and sometimes fresh approaches are necessary to make great games. What's important here is that none of the reported changes have resulted in staff reductions. Developers were moved to other projects and are working on a number of games in our pipeline.

Our primary focus right now is to release Dying Light: The Beast for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. After the launch of Dying Light: The Beast, we will share more about future titles in due time."

 

[DenchDeckard]

Gaming in turmoil.

 

[adamsapple]

That's a shame, unfortunately I also don't see the upcoming dying light game doing that well since it's a smaller offshoot and was meant to be DLC originally .

Wish them the well, I enjoy their games for the most part.

 

[Pop]

Gaming in turmoil.

AAA is

 

[Hudo]

Were those 2 projects bankrolled by Microsoft?

 

[Da1337Vinci]

AAA is

Mostly Western AAA is

 

[Loomy]

"Game development is never a straight line, and sometimes fresh approaches are necessary to make great games. What's important here is that none of the reported changes have resulted in staff reductions. Developers were moved to other projects and are working on a number of games in our pipeline.

That's good at least.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Their Chinese overlords probably didn't see enough monetization in those projects.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

To bad. But a Call of Juarez sequel, nice! I hope that gets finished.

 

[SILKYSMOOTH30FPS]

The cleansing nuke is happening in 2025. Gaming will be clean by 2026.

 

[Denton]

That fantasy RPG had some of the best Witcher 3 writers working on it for years (Karolina Stachyra, Arek Borowek and others). If it really is canceled, that sucks hard and I would love to read post-mortem to know what went wrong. You'd expect with such caliber of talent, ready engine and game mechanics, it should be a smooth sailing, but nope.

Makes me even prouder of what Warhorse achieved with KCD1 and 2, completely new team, composed mostly of newbies, making some of the best open world RPGs ever.

 

[Dodo123]

That's Tencent for you

 

[Branded]

When games like PEAK, REPO, Lethal Company, that weed simulator game, Phasmophobia and many others of this ilk dominate the conversation then companies would be unwise not to take note of this and give people what they want. Instead of the umpteenth "TURRIPAL AEY" slop that not only is, more often than not, feature incomplete on release but also filled with activism and other nonsense (let alone bugs and other performance issues). Let it all crash and burn.

Prices are sky rocketing as well so I'm glad Indies still exist and provide us with endless amount of entertainment at very affordable costs to the consumer.