A gameplay trailer was finally released for the long-awaited action-RPG Dead Island 2, and its confirmation is nothing short of a miracle. The original Dead Island was about a group of high-profile people trying to escape a zombie-infested island. Despite having an engaging atmosphere, the game received good, but not great, critical reception. Regardless, development began on a sequel less than a year after the initial game’s release. Despite promises of a 2015 release window, the sequel never appeared – until now.
Though little is known about Dead Island 2 at this time, the game is confirmed to take place in a zombie-infested Los Angeles. Techland, the developer of the original game, was initially supposed to create the sequel as well. However, the project was later passed on to Yager Development, a German game studio. The gory zombie thriller Dead Island 2 continued to change hands, with Yager Development’s division behind the game even filing for insolvency after being taken off the project. Despite having an audience large enough to warrant a sequel, the next Dead Island seemed like an abandoned prospect for years.
Dead Island 2‘s miraculous recovery is somewhat complicated, but troubles began when Techland abandoned the project. According to Polygon, Techland chose to work on Dying Light instead, forcing Deep Silver to search for a new developer. Eurogamer later reported that Yager Development successfully pitched the game to Deep Silver, and even established a new division specifically for the task. At E3 in 2014, Deep Silver even released a trailer promising a 2015 release date. That trailer can still be seen on PlayStation’s YouTube page.
Dead Island 2 Gets An Extraordinary Release Date After Over Ten Years
However, the project once again fell apart in mid-2015 when Deep Silver revealed they dropped Yager as a developer. Dead Island 2‘s newest complication seemed senseless, but in another Eurogamer article, the head of Yager specified that the companies split over creative differences, causing Yager to file for insolvency as a means of protecting its employees. It was becoming more and more apparent that Dead Island 2‘s journey was too tumultuous to end anytime soon. Suddenly, in 2016, MCV/DEVELOP announced that Sumo Digital would take over development, reigniting hope for fans of the original game. For the next two years, Deep Silver stayed largely silent, though it did issue yearly assurances that Dead Island 2 was still in progress.
The sequel seemed to be back on track when Gematsu announced in 2019 that development would change hands yet again, this time to Dambuster Studios, an internal team at Deep Silver. Though the development process had already suffered an excruciating amount of changes and hurdles, this news was strangely hopeful even before Dead Island 2‘s big reveal at Gamescom 2022. If Deep Silver, a publisher who is notoriously stubborn regarding its vision of the project, could not finish the job, then no company could. This is why PlayStation’s recent Gamescom gameplay trailer, which officially announced a February 3, 2023 release date, is nothing short of a miracle; despite overwhelming odds, Dead Island 2 will finally see the light of day.
Sources: Polygon, Eurogamer (2), PlayStation/YouTube (E3 2014 trailer), PlayStation/YouTube (Gamescom 2022 gameplay trailer), MCV/DEVELOP, Gematsu
