I didn’t much care for World War Z when it originally released last year on PS4, but credit where it’s due, the developer behind the hit zombie co-op game, Saber Interactive, has done a great job at pumping out regular content updates, both free and paid.
It’s getting to the point now, then, where players are starting to wonder if there will be a World War Z 2, and when it will release. While there’s no official announcement at the moment, it’s basically confirmed that Saber Interactive will work on the franchise in the future. And yes, it’s considered a franchise now, so that in itself should tell you that there will be a sequel at some point.
During an investor presentation, Saber Interactive co-founder Matthew Karch, hinted that the studio wasn’t done yet and could work on a new game in the future, saying:
“We have a large team that’s continuing to support the title. It’s a great franchise for us, we see a lot of potential in the future. I wouldn’t be surprised if we continued to work on it and we certainly don’t want to abandon our fanbase because the way games are made these days is, it’s constantly feeding your fanbase even if the content is free, that’s how you keep your community alive, and if you want to ever get to the sequel, you’ve got to keep them there, and so we understand that even games that are for sale are games as a service, so that’s the way we approach all our development with all the games that we’re working on.”
He then goes on to reveal that Saber Interactive holds the license for World War Z and has good protections on it and that the studio plans to develop the franchise. It’s fair to assume, given that the PS5 should release later this year, that any sequel would most likely be on the next-gen machines, and maybe on the current-gen PS4/Xbox One.
“Personally, I think licensed IP sometimes gets a bad rap. You can make just as much money with a licensed IP as you can with your own IP, it’s just a question of how long you have that IP for. In the case of World War Z we have some pretty good protections and we can continue to develop that franchise and plan to, and as long as we have that then it’s almost the equivalent of owning it with just the obligation to share on the back end a bit.”
For fans of World War Z, it’s as good as confirmation that World War Z 2 is in the works – the game, that is. The movie? Who bloody knows…
If you haven’t already played World War Z and want to see what all the fuss is about, you can get your copy via the PlayStation Store, or a physical copy from Amazon (US) and Amazon (UK).
Source: VGC
