Zombie games don’t look like they’ll ever really go away. Back 4 Blood and State of Decay 3 are only some of the latest entries in a long tradition of games focused on surviving the zombie apocalypse. However, there’s one game that’s getting lapped by these new announcements, and that’s Dead Island 2. The first Dead Island came out ten years ago, and although there was a bit of controversy around it, the reception was warm enough that a sequel seemed like a logical move. Development on the sequel began almost immediately. In spite of that, Dead Island 2 has yet to escape development.
Fans are understandably wondering if the game is ever going to come out at this point. Dead Island 2 has been handed off from developer to developer and keeps facing setbacks just when it seems like it’s making some progress. All the while, the game industry is moving ahead quickly. Dead Island 2 was originally in development for the PS4 and the Xbox One when they were still young consoles. Now, the PS5 and the Xbox Series X are freshly released and going strong. Dead Island 2 is supposedly still being worked on, but is it ever going to make it out, or has its moment passed?
One thing that’s odd about Dead Island 2 is that it’s not even being made by the developers that started the franchise. Techland let go of Dead Island 2 pretty quickly, and producer Deep Silver lined up Yager Productions to work on the game instead. Yager worked on the game for several years before it had a falling out with Deep Silver, after which Dead Island 2‘s development was handed to Sumo Digital. After a couple more years, Sumo Digital also let go of the IP, and an internal Deep Silver studio picked up the Dead Island mantle instead.
That kind of winding development is never a good sign for any game. Every time someone new takes over production, it means new visions are being applied to the project. Concepts and plans will change, sometimes drastically, and so the game gets set back in development. Sometimes all these setbacks add up enough that the owner of the IP decides to just drop the project and focus on something that’s doing better. That’d be an awful shame for fans of Dead Island. Ten years is a long time to wait for a Dead Island sequel that’s been public knowledge for six or seven of those years.
If there’s one thing for Dead Island fans to hang onto, it’s that Deep Silver is still speaking about the game positively. Just last December, Deep Silver indicated to fans that it and Dambuster Studios are still working on Dead Island 2. Deep Silver easily could’ve dropped the sequel by now. Instead, it seems determined to push the sequel through. There’s potentially a lot to gain from finishing up Dead Island 2, right when video game technology is making leaps and bounds. By the time it’s finally done, this sequel might be a lot stronger than its source material.
That doesn’t mean fans should prepare for a major announcement anytime soon, though. There hasn’t been any proper news in a really long time; the closest thing to announcements were leaks of early Dead Island 2 builds and new job postings from early 2020. It’s still possible that Deep Silver eventually calls it quits and cuts its losses on the game. It already publishes evergreen franchises, like Saints Row and Wasteland, so it’s not betting everything on Dead Island 2.
This zombie game might have a hard time breaking into a market dominated by titans like The Last of Us. Still, as long as Deep Silver is hiring and talking about the game as if there’s hope, Dead Island 2 might still have a chance to rise from its grave.
Dead Island 2 is in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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