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Dying Light 2 Is in ‘the Last Stretch’: Techland Refutes Reports of Studio Troubles

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Earlier this month, Polish games outlet PolskiGamedev.pl ran a story claiming the 200-person team at Techland responsible for Dying Light 2 was stuck in a rut. Reports of in-fighting, mismanagement, and a lack of vision for the long-in-development project seemed to signal the ambitious zombie RPG was in danger.

We reached out to Techland to get their side of the story. Senior PR Manager Ola Sondej and Lead Game Designer Tymon Smektala shared their perspective in a wide-ranging interview that also touched upon rumors of a Microsoft buyout, game development during a pandemic, and more.

Do you still plan to launch Dying Light 2 in 2020? Will it utilize Xbox Smart Delivery?

Smektala:
There’s a whole team at Techland that works on the announcement of the release date for the game and every piece of info that accompanies it, and I know they want to surprise players, so I don’t want to spoil it for them or our community. The only thing I can say is please trust us — it’s the last stretch for this project, and we need your support.

Where do you think the Microsoft acquisition rumors came from?

Sondej
: I think some wrong dots were connected in late 2019, and it snowballed into something larger. We work with Microsoft on a regular basis since Dying Light 2 is also being developed for Xbox One, as well as PC and PlayStation 4. Perhaps someone misinterpreted our relationship.

Has Microsoft or another publisher come to you with an offer to acquire the studio? If so, why did you decline?

Sondej
: We do see some interest from potential investors every now and then, but we always make it clear we are independent and will remain independent for the foreseeable future. We have no plans to enter the stock market, nor (are we) currently open to investors or potential buyers. To clarify, we were not in such talks with Microsoft.


Check the link for more.
 
I was worried when the first report came out about issues. I am glad they responded. I am sure the truth is somewhere in the middle. The impression I got from the other thread is that maybe this project was a little too ambitious for its own good, but I can't wait to play it.
 

martino

Member
Huge potential for this one.
giphy.gif
 

SleepDoctor

Banned
I hope the rumors really are false. First one was great and all the support they gave it, guaranteed my purchase of the second.
 

Shrap

Member
Mmm I'm not so confident:
The only thing I can say is please trust us — it’s the last stretch for this project, and we need your support
That sounds pretty shaky. I'm thinking it will either come out soon in a bad state or it is still a long way off.

Hopefully I'm wrong though as I really enjoyed Dying Light.
 
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Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
I'm not worried about the game whatsoever but im not expecting it until early 2021. Maybe Spring 2021 if RE 8 releases in January.
 

Aidah

Member
Obviously he's going to refute it, but I hope it's true that there isn't any significant trouble, because the first game was surprisingly good.
 

Kdad

Member
Cancelled my 48$ CDN preorder from...2015 was it? Just last week. Too many console launch game exclusives coming in the next year that'll hold my interest...i'll pick this up at on a steam sale if it ever comes out.
 
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Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Please, please don't let the negative rumours be true. The first game is such an underrated gem and some of the stuff they described at first would be incredible if even half of it was realised.
 

Dthomp

Member
Mmm I'm not so confident:

That sounds pretty shaky. I'm thinking it will either come out soon in a bad state or it is still a long way off.

Hopefully I'm wrong though as I really enjoyed Dying Light.

Yeah I'd be concerned for sure. For me, the first game was "eh" so I'm not interested at all in the sequel, but I can count on one hand the number of games that had delays all over and this kind of mess that came out and were actually better for it. When history generally just repeats itself it's safe to bet that this will not be a great experience when it finally ships, but you never know
 

sxodan

Member
I don't believe them. I think some of the development problems were very much real hence the several delays.
 
Love Dying Light 2, but there's word that the E3 demo was made soley for E3? Not sure how much of the game is done-done, but the team does seem to be spinning its wheels.
 

YuLY

Member
Wonder how much they changed the story or the choices after Avellone left. I really doubt its still as ambitious as they made it out to be at that 2018 E3.
 


Not to be negative, post from Techland means nothing, they still thought development was going awesome when the news outlets were reporting the internal problems with their Creative Director.

They had a ton of other writers on Dying Light 2, which kept getting rotated out by Techland's management before they broke ties with Avellone (who lasted the longest, apparently), so I hope the story is okay, but god knows what they've been doing with it.

Loved Dying Light 1, but the story was pretty weak - even if the story is weak in DL2, I'll probably enjoy playing it - if it ever finishes.
 

Shaukdotdj

Member
This game is vaporware to me at this point. At the rate we're going, if I don't see anything by Dec 10th at the game awards jm just gonna assume we'll see a release date for FFVIIR-2 before this.
 
"In May 2020, Techland said that the game was in the final stages of its development and was being polished."

Press X to Doubt

Guess the last 7 months was just kicking back, living the life
 
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