Hellraid put on hold as Techland shifts development focus to Dying Light

Techland has confirmed that development on its dark fantasy first-person hack n' slash game Hellraid has been put on hold and will not be released this year as planned.

According to a statement from the developer, "Hellraid, in its current shape and form, is not meeting our own expectations for this project. Therefore, we decided the best course of action would be to send it back to the drawing board and invent our dark fantasy title anew."

In the meantime, Techland says they'll consolidate their development resources to focus on "further expansion" of their Dying Light franchise. Given the success Techland has seen with their parkour-infused, first-person zombie-survival game, it's not really a surprise that they want to find new ways to build on their most popular title.

Dying Light has already been bolstered by a mix of both free and paid DLC, and surprsingly, the add-on content has been well-received by fans. Next week, Techland will release The Bozak Horde, the third and final DLC included in Dying Light's Season Pass. However, now that they are shifting their focus on Dying Light, it's possible we could be getting more Dying Light content, if not a full sequel to the game.

As for Hellraid, well, I'm not really surprised to see its delay. When I saw it at E3 last year, it looked very bland. I'm glad Techland is looking for ways to breathe new life into the game rather than push out another generic fantasy game.