Reports from a private tip are indicating that the development team behind The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners has been laid off. This report comes from Twitter account Days Without Layoffs, a feed that tracks the number of days without layoffs in the gaming industry. It also notes layoffs that occur and resets its count. Today it posted a “private tip” that The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners team at Skydance Interactive has been laid off.
From a private tip, the team behind The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners at Skydance Interactive has been laid off.
It was four days between game industry layoffs.
— Days Without Layoffs (@DaysWithoutLoss) February 25, 2020
There are no additional sources or corroborations of the Skydance Interactive layoffs at this time, though noted industry analyst Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) retweeted the report.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is a VR shooter based on The Walking Dead comics series. It released for Steam and Oculus on January 23, 2020, and is scheduled to come to PSVR in Q2 2020 and Oculus Quest later this year. However, the reports of The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners layoffs may now throw those plans into question.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners released to largely positive reviews, with many calling it a “standout” VR experience that shed a lot of the baggage most VR games come packed with, creating a unique experience that places players right in the middle of the zombie apocalypse.
Last year, Skybound also killed Overkill’s The Walking Dead for consoles after the PC version released, however, that was due to developer Overkill and Publisher Starbreeze Studio not meeting the standards of quality that Skybound expected from the game. Reviews were exceptionally poor at launch. The game was entirely pulled from PC storefronts and the console version never released. Saints and Sinners, on the other hand, was being developed internally—as opposed to licensed out—and was met with positive reception. Skydance and Skybound have yet to release sales numbers for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners’ initial PC VR launch.
Remember that these reports are unverified for now, so take the news with a grain of salt. Skydance has yet to confirm if the layoffs have even occurred, not to mention how widespread they are and if they will impact future plans for The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners PSVR release.
