Hey! Remember Dead Island 2? The sequel to Techland’s zombie-killing open-world sandbox was announced back when zombies were still the monster du jour. More than half a decade ago, the game was meant to being development by Techland themselves, but they went off with Warner Bros to make the superlative open-world zombie experience, Dying Light (a game that’s still supported with add-on content to this day) in development by Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager Development. It was meant to be released in 2015, but creative differences between IP holder Deep Silver and Yager Development (who, presumably wanted to use the game to actually say something as they did with Spec Ops) saw them ousted because “Yager and Deep Silver’s respective visions of the project fell out of alignment.”
They were replaced Sonic and All-star Racing developer Sumo Digital – who went on to finish up Crackdown 3 for Microsoft after Reagent Games and its associated Cloudgine was effectively swallowed up by Epic Games. In the years since, Deep Silver (and its parent company, THQ Nordic AB) have reaffirmed that the game is still in active development.
Now, in an investor’s note, THQ Nordic has confirmed that another studio has taken over development of Dead Island 2. That studio is Deep Silver’s own Dambuster Studios (Formerly Crytek UK and Free Radical), who have now also been given custodianship for the franchise in general.
Says THQ Nordic AB in the investor report:
“We have entrusted Dambuster Studios with the Dead Island franchise, bringing the development of this key franchise to one of our internal studios. They are now leading the development of Dead Island 2.”
Whether this actually expedites Dead Island 2’s release or puts it back a few more years remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Dying Light 2 should be out next year.
Last Updated: August 14, 2019
CrAiGiSh
August 14, 2019 at 09:31
Rather just play Dying Light and the sequel coming out.
Admiral Chief Umbra
August 14, 2019 at 09:31
I’ve always wanted to jam DL in some co-op madness
CrAiGiSh
August 14, 2019 at 09:31
The game is epic fun in co-op.
Admiral Chief Umbra
August 14, 2019 at 09:31
I can only imagine
G8crasha
August 14, 2019 at 09:47
I so agree. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Dying Light, and with what seems to be happening with DL2, I am very excited for that game.
G8crasha
August 14, 2019 at 09:47
I so agree. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Dying Light, and with what seems to be happening with DL2, I am very excited for that game.
Gareth Runnalls
August 14, 2019 at 12:20
My favorite Dead Island memory is doing a 1 hit crit kill on the games last boss, sending him flying off the helipad into the jungle below. The fight was over in 7 seconds flat. My coop partner was literally just standing in one spot looking for the boss when the end game cinematic rolled up. We got lucky, but I will never forget that finale. The weapon itself I just acquired 10 min before, so I started a new game + and spent the next hour on the beach hitting zombies about 40m out over the ocean, into the deep. It was magic. Sure, Dying light is, overall, a better game, but Dead Island was still amazing. Riptide was okay…