Anyone who’s played a Dead Rising game before now will be aware that it’s a franchise that favours multiple endings, and Dead Rising 4 is no exception.
Unfortunately, there have been some troubling reports coming in from a number of players who claim to have already beaten the recently released zombie smash ’em up.
In short, it seems that the game’s ‘true’ ending is only available as a part of a paid batch of DLC, due out sometime in 2017.
If you’ve had a blast on any previous Dead Rising games, you’ll know that you can eventually unlock a mode called ‘Overtime’, which is essentially a harder difficulty that grants you extra story scenes.
Holty12345 explains on the Xbox One subreddit:
Every Dead Rising Game has had multiple endings, A,B,C,D,E,F etc. Each one is done by different criteria… Getting ending A always unlocks ‘Overtime’ mode, in which the story is continued for a little bit. It’s not a lot of content normally, but it rounds out the story.
This Gen Gaming, The Bit Bag, and a number of users from the Xbox One subeddit insist that the Overtime mode is now locked behind a paywall, meaning we won’t get the ‘real’ ending unless we pony up the cash.
Of course, as Holty12345 reasons, Overtime might round out the story, but it’s never a lot of content. Other users also suggest that ‘ending A’ is usually the canonical ending anyway.
Still, if Capcom really are keeping the real ending (however brief or inconsequential) behind a paywall, then I’d say the people who gave their time and money to Dead Rising 4 have a right to be pissed.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.