Techland has altered the Dying Light release platform plan in an open letter to their fans and prospective game buyers. As a result, the number of platforms supported for the game’s launch has been trimmed from five to three.
The letter, which you can read in its entirety below, Techland states that the technical requirements for the game pushed the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles beyond what they were capable of achieving. Rather than severely downgrade the game to run on those systems, Techland has made the late decision to outright cancel the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.
The Dying Light release date remains unaffected by this platform consolidation move. It will be available to own for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC in North American on January 27, 2015, followed by Australia and New Zealand the following day and then Europe and Asia on January 30.
“Dear Gamers,
As you probably know, we’re wrapping up the development of Dying Light, our biggest and most ambitious project to date. We spent the last three years making sure that all the features of our game add up to create a truly next-gen experience.
Much of this “next-gen feel” is tightly connected to the technological side of Dying Light. For instance, up to 200,000 objects can be displayed in the game at once. Add to this our use of realistic, physics-based lighting technology and you really start to push the next-gen systems to the limits. Features like these along with our core gameplay pillars – such as the player-empowering Natural Movement, threefold character development system, and vast open world – are all an inherent part of how Dying Light plays. However, combining all of these into one fluid experience is only possible on technologically advanced platforms.
Therefore, after thorough internal testing, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to leave past-gen systems behind and release Dying Light exclusively on the next-gen consoles and PC. Put simply, older consoles just couldn’t run the game and stay true to the core vision of Dying Light at the same time.
To ensure you enjoy Dying Light as much as we would like you to, we chose to release it without any compromises on the three strongest systems available. Thanks to this, you’ll get the full and best experience regardless of the platform you play on.
We hope you understand the hard choice we’ve had to make. With the launch just around the corner, we can’t wait to show you Dying Light in the state it was meant to be. We’re looking forward to your reactions and impressions as we release the game in January 2015.”
Techland and North American publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are now banking on the install base for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to grow dramatically over this holiday season as they’ve lost a lot of potential customers with the move. At the same time, new-gen adopters should feel great this morning knowing that they’re going to have access to the best Dying Light game without platform compromise.
