Dying Light developers Techland are cancelling two games, according to report

It never rains but it pours, as we say in old London town. Hard on the heels of Microsoft’s gargantuan mass layoffs yesterday, which accompany several game cancellations and have also seemingly led to layoffs at Romero Games, Dying Light developers Techland have reportedly cancelled two projects. They’ve haven’t said which, but in the absence of known alternatives, one of them could be their untitled open world fantasy action-RPG from former employees of CD Projekt.

Techland, who are a subsidiary of Tencent via majority stake, are currently working on Dying Light: The Beast, a game of wide open horizons and puckish zombo head-platforming, which I played at Summer Game Fest and mostly enjoyed. Highlights: fleeing super-mutant cadavers in the dark, from rooftop to rooftop. Less fun: having cars thrown at me by a bullet-sponge boss. That’s him in the picture there. Up yours, you greasy Bruce Bannerlike.

Back in 2022, Techland also announced “a new fantasy epic set in a sprawling open world”. Last we heard, it was being made by former developers of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher series, amongst them open world director Bartosz Ochman, narrative director Karolina Stachyra, and narrative lead Arkadiusz Borowik. But all that may be no more, for Techland have just reported losses of 130 million Polish złoty or roughly $37.3 million, according to Polish business site Puls Biznesu (via VGC). These losses stem from “our decision to discontinue further work on two projects.”

I’ll ask Techland for comment. If you’re wondering why there are so many layoffs happening, it’s not just the games industry’s general enshittification – it’s the end of a financial quarter, a season in which book-balancers like to get out their red pens and polish the old cost/revenue ratio for the investors.