Dying Light canned on Last-Gen, will be PS4/Xbox One exclusive

Techland’s latest undead epic will be a current generation title only.

Just announced today, the game will indeed not see the light of day on the Xbox 360 or the PS3, as was originally intended. Warsaw, Poland based developer Techland basically says the title is just too technologically advanced for the 360 and the PS3 to handle.

They explain in the following open letter to gamers everywhere:

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 Lightplays. 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 releaseDying 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 ofDying 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.

I love this move. Sure it means that two audiences are going to miss out on the game, but I definitely believe that developing cross-generationally is holding games back from really taking advantage of the now one year old PS4 and Xbox One hardware. Applause for that, and I wish that more developers would hop off the last-gen bus as well.

Not to worry though, if you’re thinking that the game will be further delayed for the Xbox One and the PS4, as you can still expect to see Dying Light on the shelves and in digital storefronts on those consoles as well as the PC on January 27th in the US, on the 28th in Australia and New Zealand, and on January 30th in Europe and Asia.