The developer of Evil Dead: The Game has some bad news for Switch players

Evil Dead: The Game will ultimately not be released for the Switch. Saber Interactive has confirmed the cancellation of plans to port the title to Nintendo's hybrid console, delivering some additional unfortunate news to the fanbase. This announcement comes just 16 months after the release of Evil Dead: The Game, which received predominantly positive reviews.

While video game adaptations of movies usually do not guarantee quality, the Evil Dead franchise has had more luck than most in this realm. This could be attributed to its long-standing success with interactive spin-offs. Evil Dead: The Game marks the tenth such adaptation since the mid-80s. Fans and critics alike praised the successful blend of survival horror and multiplayer elements in this amalgamation, encompassing both cooperative and competitive content.

However, Saber Interactive is now discontinuing active support for the latest Evil Dead game and has announced this on social media. As a result, the Florida-based studio will not release any additional content for the title and has also canceled the planned Nintendo Switch port, which was initially announced for late 2020. The company has not provided further details about its decision but has assured the existing player base that the servers for Evil Dead: The Game will not be shut down in the foreseeable future. The end of active development also does not mean that Saber will cease fixing critical errors, should such issues arise, as long as the game remains playable.

Some fans have already expressed their disappointment with this announcement on social media, particularly because many believed that Evil Dead: The Game still had significant potential. While Saber Interactive did not provide further context for their decision, the fact that active support is being discontinued for a 16-month-old live-service game suggests that the player base for the multiplayer title has significantly dwindled. Such actions typically do not occur in isolation, especially not within companies with thousands of employees who are accustomed to juggling multiple projects and have the resources to sustain them.

Therefore, given the fact that Saber Interactive is already discontinuing active support for Evil Dead: The Game, it is not far-fetched to assume that the company has analyzed the numbers and concluded that creating additional content simply isn't worthwhile. Whether a similar mindset was also the determining factor in the decision to cancel the Switch version of the game is less clear. However, the cancellation itself suggests that the port, even after years of development, was far from being completed.

Alternatively or additionally, this decision could have been influenced by an overarching directive related to the end of the product lifecycle, extending beyond the authority of the studio management. In particular, Saber's parent company, the Embracer Group, recently announced significant cost-saving measures and stated that, as part of an effort to optimize business operations amidst the deteriorating global economic situation, they will be closely reviewing a multitude of their projects.

Evil Dead: The Game is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.