Far too on the nose that capitalists ended up owning and destroying this series.

The whole history of ZA/UM, the original company, not this zombie husk, was that it was a group of friends coming up with their own ideas for a fictional universe. It really shows in DE that it was essentially a labor of love done by a small group, and it's completely different from any other modern game. This wasn't enough for the vampires who can't appreciate anything that isn't made from the ground up to be a money making machine, so they just had to take it over. "Wow, a new popular IP, how about a TV show on Amazon?"