Developer Techland, who created the Dying Light universe as we know it, has announced the cancellation of two of its upcoming titles due to a poor financial year. This news hits particularly hard, simply because of how all the layoffs are reverberating throughout the gaming world as of late. I truly didn’t expect Techland to be hit by a poor financial year, though it was clear that Dying Light 2 experienced a very rocky launch where profit was concerned, but the tile eventually revived itself due to patches and fresh updates including the addition of firearms in the Reloaded Edition.
Yesterday, in a press release sent to various media outlets, Techland announced the cancellation of two in-development projects, as well as indicating a redirection of resources to a yet-to-be-announced project which will hopefully be a profitable endeavor for the currently struggling studio. It was also reported that the company suffered record losses of approximately $37 million in 2024 alone, and about $25 million in 2023, which obviously aren’t small losses to undergo back-to-back.
However, as we speak about these unfortunate setbacks, let’s try and share a more positive perspective here and look at Dying Light: The Beast. This highly anticipated return to the story of Kyle Crane releases next month, August 22, 2025, and is poised to push the developer into the black, setting them on course to put more resources into other projects (we hope).
Shelved Upcoming Titles
Techland has not officially confirmed which titles have been scrapped however, though according to reports it’s safe to assume that one of them was the fantasy RPG action game revealed by the team in May of 2022. The game was known as “Project Cornerstone” and took inspiration from the Star Wars Universe in terms of being able to use “the force” to manipulate the environment, as well as controlling other powerful abilities to bend the environment to your will.
While it’s not 100% clear why the title was cancelled, it is known that the project struggled due to poor leadership decisions which saw it shift onto the Unreal Engine rather than the original system they were using for the game. Speaking of Unreal Engine, one thing is for certain and that is, the teams who were working on both of the shelved projects are now working on a Call of Juarez sequel which has been in the works for some time now, this loops me back to this project using the Unreal Engine as opposed to the cancelled projects originally using Chrome Engine.
As we know, the last Call of Juarez title was developed by Techland and published by Ubisoft and released in 2013. Techland took the publishing right back in 2018, since then all has been quiet on the western front as we say, but it would be good to see some developments rather than cancellations, because of late we are seeing far too much negative news surrounding gaming.
I’m just going to choose to focus on the positives; Dying Light: The Beast is still set to release on August 22, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X|S, and I’m hoping for a successful release of an outstanding title to be added to the Dying Light universe! Hopefully we see a ton of action-packed set pieces and a gripping storyline akin to those of the original Dying Light, set in our beloved Harran.
Let us know what you think in the comments below! Do you guys think that the cancellations will be a big hit? Are you more excited for Dying Light’s next addition or a new sequel for Call of Juarez?
