The last console generation is finally starting to show its age.
Dying Light, the free-running zombie game from Dead Island creator Techland, has officially been pulled from from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Techland explained, via a now-deleted Facebook post, that older systems “just couldn’t run the game.” It’s a brave decision for Techland to drop support for consoles that have a larger owner base than PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but it seems the past generation just can’t keep up with the technical demands of some modern releases.
“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,” said Techland’s Facebook post, according to VG24/7.
Techland detailed the “next gen” features of Dying Light that it struggled to get running on PS3 and Xbox 360. It said releasing without them would compromise the “core vision” of the game:
“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 howDying Light plays. However, combining all of these into one fluid experience is only possible on technologically advanced platforms.”
Dying Light isn’t the first game that has struggled to maintain its vision on the older hardware. Action role-playing game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor comes to PS3 and Xbox 360 next month with a scaled-back mind-controlling Nemesis system — the one feature that made it so unique on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Techland doesn’t want to make such compromises, it seems, and we’ll only be getting the full Dying Light experience when it hits PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in January.
“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,” said Techland. “Thanks to this, you’ll get the full and best experience regardless of the platform you play on.”