All Articles: Dead Island 2

THQ Nordic CEO Lars Wingefors had a lot to share during his company’s most recent quarterly financial report, including a pair of new studio acquisitions, a new developer for Dead Island 2, and the existence of Saints Row 5.

The publisher already owns an extensive portfolio of internal developers, and it recently added two more to its stable: Gunfire Games (developer of Darksiders III) and Milestone (developer of racing titles such as MotoGP and Ride). According to THQ Nordic, Milestone has “five current games under development” while Gunfire is hard at work on Remnant: From the Ashes.

Wingefors also revealed that Dead Island 2 is still in the works within THQ Nordic, however it’s development is no longer being lead by Sump Digital. Instead, Dambuster Studios (the developer behind Homefront: The Revolution) has been assigned to work on the game. No release date was announced, so we’re probably still in for a long wait before we learn more about the sequel.

Finally, the executive confirmed that Volition has begun development on the fifth game in the Saints Row franchise. Again, it might be a while before we learn more about this one.

All told, Wingefors reported that THQ Nordic currently has 81 games in development, 47 of which have yet to announced.

Dead Island 2 has been killed and resurrected a few times since it was first announced back in 2014, with Deep Silver originally eyeing a Spring 2015 launch for the first-person sequel. But the game dropped off the radar completely that same year, and the publisher only eventually emerged to reveal that Dead Island 2 was no longer in the hands of original developer Yager.

Since then, Dead Island 2 was brought back to life by Sumo Digital, though concrete details have still been pretty hard to come by. But yesterday, we got a small update (via Twitter) about the sequel alongside the launch of mobile spinoff Dead Island: Survivors…

Dead Island 2 is still in development and we will share more on this at a later stage.

— Dead Island (@deadislandgame) July 4, 2018

That statement doesn’t stray too far from the ones that Deep Silver delivered in 2016 and 2017, but it’s nice to know that the Dead Island 2 is still in development somewhere.

It’s been more than a year since Deep Silver provided an update on Dead Island 2, and Eurogamer was worried the game had shambled off this mortal coil. But according to a new statement from the publisher, it looks like the zombie sequel is still very much alive:

“Dead Island 2 is in development at Sumo Digital, and we are excited by the progress the team are making with Deep Silver’s most successful IP. When we are ready to share more information, we will.”

Dead Island 2 made its public debut at E3 2014, and was expected to launch in Spring 2015. Things seemed to be going fine, but after its release was delayed several times, Deep Silver took Dead Island 2 away from Yager and handed it over to Sumo Digital.

But that’s about all we know. As of now, we still have no idea when Dead Island 2 will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Deep Silver has momentarily shoved Dead Island 2 aside to promote the release of this May’s Dead Island: Definitive Collection. But the publisher plans to return to the troubled sequel in the near future and they’ve confirmed to MCV that development will be continued by Sumo Digital.

“Sumo showed so much understanding of the brand, had creative ideas and an excellent, vision that was aligned with our own,” Koch Media CEO Dr. Klemens Kundratitz told MCV.

“It just made perfect sense for us to move the project to them. We will reveal more details at a later stage, but for now I’d like to say that we are obviously super excited about the progress that we are making with them.”

Development on Dead Island 2 originally began at Yager, but Deep Silver yanked the game away from the Spec Ops: The Line team after their progress didn’t meet the publisher’s expectations.

Earlier this year, Deep Silver delayed Dead Island 2 after they said that development on the game wasn’t meeting up with their expectations. Today, the publisher issued a short statement confirming that Yager will no longer be the developer behind Dead Island 2:

With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver has always been dedicated to delivering the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve. After careful consideration, today we announce the decision to part ways with development partner Yager.

Development on Dead Island 2 will continue, and Deep Silver plans to announce further details about the game “at a later stage.” It’s unknown if this developer shuffle will further push back the game’s release date (currently penciled in for 2016), but it will likely be a while before we get the chance to play Dead Island 2.

The original Dead Island and its sequel, Dead Island: Riptide, were developed by Techland. After Deep Silver and Techland parted ways, the Polish developer teamed up with WB Games to release Dying Light, another first-person zombie game, earlier this year.

Deep Silver originally planned to unleash Dead Island 2 on the world in Spring 2015. But with the end of Spring rapidly approaching, that seemed less and less likely by the day. And today, the publisher made it official, announcing on Twitter that the game has been delayed into 2016.

Elaborating on their decision in a TwitLonger post, Deep Silver said: “We have been looking at the game long and hard, and we have decided we didn’t reach that goal we set out to achieve quite yet. This is why we have decided to delay Dead Island 2 to 2016. Right now we are focusing purely on development, and we will have more info to share at a later stage.”

Deep Silver also said they’ll share more about Dead Island 2, which is in development with Yager for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, at “a later stage.”

The last time Deep Silver created a Collector’s Edition for a Dead Island game, they came up with Dead Island: Riptide‘s infamous “Zombie Bait Edition.” The centerpiece of that package was a bikini-clad bloody torso statue that sent the Internet into an uproar. So the publisher is turning to the public for help in designing the Dead Island 2 Collector’s Edition.

A new survey posted by Deep Silver asks their fans to rate 28 different items on a scale of one to five. The options include the expected (character figurines, art book), the unexpected (zombie arm back scratcher, beer cooler case), and the downright bizarre (zombie Oscar statuette, a real zombie). Voting is open now and closes on Monday, July 14 at midnight. So if you want to vote, you better hurry.

Dead Island 2 will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in Spring 2015.