After Techland announced that the physical copies of its hotly anticipated parkour zombie-survival title Dying Light would be delayed in every region outside North America, its consumer base has responded exactly the way one would expect: they’re asking for their money back.
The sentiment above isn’t rare. Discussion on any article relating the the most recent delay of Dying Light is marred with talk bemoaning pre-ordering, or discussing what game to get instead. Many people have said they will simply wait for the game to come out everywhere and buy it when the price drops. Any more proof can be found on Dying Light‘s Facebook post about the delay.
All told, this looks to be a heavy hit to the bottom line of what was bound to be a successful game. Even after Techland’s previous title Dead Island released in its infamously buggy fashion, it still sold five million copies in two years, and a lot of that was through pre-orders, as Dead Island went gold before release. Dying Light has not gone gold, by any official accounts, and it’s hard to see that happening in a game rapidly losing pre-order support.
Techland has been quick to its defense, in light of this, reminding everyone that they are not responsible for publishing or distributing the game.
Even if Techland wasn’t going to be unfairly blamed for this snafu, it doesn’t change the fact that the success of Dying Light has been harmed irreparably. It may still be a success, but imagine what it could have been.
Dying Light had everything going for it, too. The PC port for Grand Theft Auto V had just been delayed from its competing release date of Jan. 27, which left Call of Duty: Exo Zombies as Dying Light’s only major competition. I don’t know of an expansion pack that’s ever directly competed with a full game. Also, Evolve had just turned a lot of consumers off with their DLC model of charging exorbitant amounts for new characters/character skins. Dying Light was poised to be one of the most, if not the most, successful titles of Q1.
Also See: Dying Light – Everything You Need to Know
Techland should be, and appears to be, livid about this whole issue, since Warner Bros. Interactive is really the one to blame here, which may be why the publishing giant has stayed tight-lipped about the delay. If the game is a critical success, but a financial disappointment, history will show who’s really at fault.
