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[Nirolak]

A Brief History:

• After shipping Syndicate, Starbreeze decided that making internal engines was a bad idea, and moved to Unreal Engine 3 for Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
• Around this time, Starbreeze also bought Overkill, a studio made up of GRIN (Bionic Commando, Wanted) veterans, who had made PayDay: The Heist. PayDay was made on GRIN's Diesel engine, which they somehow kept after GRIN's bankruptcy.
• PayDay 2 launched to great success, and generated more profit for Starbreeze than they had in all of their previous ~14 years combined. As such, Overkill's CEO got promoted to run the entire company.
• Overkill's CEO decided all the company's games should run on GRIN's Diesel engine, because he was convinced it was amazing and magnificent.
• Starbreeze realized that the Diesel engine was actually a huge hindrance to them on all of their new projects, including The Walking Dead, and in September 2015, bought a company that made the "Valhalla Engine" for $8.6 million. They subsequently moved all their in development games to this engine.
• Today, Starbreeze announced they're moving off the Valhalla Engine and onto Unreal Engine 4. However, they assure everyone that buying the Valhalla Engine was a great business decision, and that the entire engine shall now be a plugin for Unreal Engine 4. Of course, only Starbreeze and their close associates are able to use this engine, so we're unlikely to learn more about this amazing technical feat.
• Starbreeze has stated that this move has not impacted the release date of The Walking Dead.
• In other news, Starbreeze announced that The Walking Dead was delayed to Fall 2018 a few months ago, from its original release date of Fall 2017, which was a delay from the game's original 2016 release date.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...-from-valhalla-to-unreal-for-the-walking-dead

As a side note, here are some purported screenshots from the game:

 

[Bridges]

This game seemed to totally miss its time. When it was first announced the idea of The Walking Dead by the Payday team seemed very promising, but personally my interest in the property has fallen way off since announcement to now, and after the last couple seasons of the show I imagine it's not just me who stopped watching.

Hopefully it turns out well though, if it ends up being good I'll definitely still give it a try.

 

[Kiriku]

Yeah, Starbreeze are unfortunately kind of struggling right now. Their stock has dropped like 30 % in the past two days. Really hope their upcoming game Raid: World War II is a success.

 

[ashecitism]

I remember one of their reasons for acquiring Valhalla was it being VR-ready.

 

[AAMARMO]

Is this the Tetsuya Nomura studio?

 

[MulderYuffie]

I at one point really looked forward to this coming from someone who thought season. 7 picked up in comparison to season 6 , overall absolutely enjoys Fear and loves the two telltale seasons (3 is good just not on the same level) I see myself just not caring for this anymore.

 

[thehillissilent]

Wow. I almost totally forgot about The Walking Dead by Overkill. I'm glad that it will be running Unreal Engine 4. I don't fully understand what they mean about Vahalla Engine becoming a plugin into UE4 though. I hope it will actually be good after the long wait.

 

[Shredderi]

Wait, I have never heard of this game before and am wondering how it passed by me! Where was this unveiled? Also is it a VR only game?

 

[Gitaroo]

Vin Deisel should buy them and make a nee Riddick game...

 

[CamHostage]

As an engine geek, it saddens me that another one is biting the dust, but if it keeps Starbreeze/Overkill in business through some troubling times, so be it. Good luck to them, hopefully their Walking Dead game hits well; the WD brand is incredibly strong (even if the show is finally showing cracks in the ratings,) so if they can get everything together, it could be very helpful in their time of need.

 

[dr_rus]

Wow. I almost totally forgot about The Walking Dead by Overkill. I'm glad that it will be running Unreal Engine 4. I don't fully understand what they mean about Vahalla Engine becoming a plugin into UE4 though. I hope it will actually be good after the long wait.

There's more to an engine that just a renderer and they can use their own tech in place of some systems provided by UE4 if they feel that it fits their projects better. Ultimately though it's kinda hard to find anything in UE4 which can be done better by a smaller team.

 

[Samir Sedlar]

Do we know anything about this Walking Dead title ?, I recall reading about it being in development quite some time ago.

 

[nampad]

I wonder why the Diesel engine was such a big hindrance for Walking Dead when it seemed ok for Payday.

 

[Durante]

The engine ecosystem required around a full-fledged AAA title these days is such a massive thing that there is only a handful of companies for whom it actually makes sense to do their own engine in this context.