Techland Drops Dying Light: The Beast Plans for PS4 and Xbox One
It has been close to a year since Dying Light: The Beast first arrived, and players have had comparatively little clarity on whether Techland would ever bring the next entry in the series to older systems—despite earlier promises. That plan is now off the table: the studio has officially scrapped the last-gen version.
Release update: PS4 and Xbox One plans canceled
| Game | Platforms affected | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Dying Light: The Beast | PlayStation 4 | No longer planned for release |
| Dying Light: The Beast | Xbox One | No longer planned for release |
Techland delivered the news through a statement posted on social media, explaining that it has made a “difficult decision” to end plans for Dying Light: The Beast on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. In the same message, the studio framed the move as the result of careful consideration, rather than a last-minute pivot.
In that statement, Techland also lays out the technical reasoning. The Beast, the studio says, was constructed from the ground up to fully use current-generation capabilities. The studio specifically points to the game’s open world, its advanced visuals, and its combat and traversal systems, arguing that these rely on performance and memory levels that previous-generation consoles can’t reliably provide.
Techland goes further, explaining that the issue became apparent during last-gen development. According to the statement, bringing The Beast to PS4 and Xbox One would have meant cutting into the original vision of the game in ways the team wasn’t comfortable with—meaning the compromises required weren’t ones they were willing to make.
The message ends by noting that players who were waiting for the canceled last-gen release can request refunds. While Techland doesn’t spell out every scenario in the excerpt here, that note appears to be aimed primarily at people who pre-ordered the PS4 or Xbox One version.
Community reactions: understanding, frustration, and lingering questions
Response to the cancellation is mixed. Some players say they get it, pointing to the kinds of engineering and content trade-offs that would likely be necessary to scale a modern open-world action game down to older hardware. A number of fans also say they’re surprised the studio even tried, especially nearly six years into the current console generation.
That skepticism is tied to the fact that PS4 and Xbox One still have a large installed base. Players have also noted that console prices can be even higher now than they were at launch, leaving some people without a realistic path to upgrading. Those users have questioned how Dying Light 2 can run on PS4 and Xbox One, yet The Beast supposedly can’t—particularly because they don’t feel like the newer game looks dramatically more intensive than the earlier sequel.
Not everyone is focused on performance trade-offs, though. Some longtime Dying Light fans are also unhappy about the lack of a physical release for The Beast, treating it as another missed opportunity to support players who prefer collecting boxed versions.
Even with that broader debate over expectations, the cancellation still stands out because it comes at a time when fewer publishers are investing in older consoles. With 2026 now in view, it can feel unusual to see a major triple-A release on PS5 paired with a planned PS4 release as well. The reaction is amplified by the broader industry shift: even Call of Duty has moved away from last-gen support, and that franchise traditionally has a larger audience on older hardware than Dying Light.
