Dead Island 2 was first announced all the way back at Sony’s E3 2014 presentation, where its trailer was met with a positive response from fans excited to see more open world zombie-killing action. We were then treated to a Dead Island 2 gameplay demo not long after, but then momentum for the game fell off a cliff, and we haven’t seen anything substantial about it for years. Fans could be forgiven for assuming Dead Island 2 was canceled, but apparently that’s not the case, and the game is still coming out for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
This was revealed by THQ Nordic CEO Lars Wingefors (THQ partly owns Deep Silver, the publisher of Dead Island 2), when he was talking about the company’s upcoming games. Unfortunately, all Wingefors confirmed was that Dead Island 2 is still in development and that fans should stay tuned for more information.
Wingefors gave no indication as to how far along in development Dead Island 2 is at this point. Wingefors also didn’t address the rumors that Sumo Digital was removed from working on the open world zombie game, so we don’t know for sure who is even working on the project.
Dead Island 2’s troubled development is reminiscent of the first game’s development cycle. As some may recall, the first Dead Island was originally announced in 2007, with a planned 2008 release date. Virtually nothing was shown of the game since its announcement, but then it finally launched in 2011 to strong sales and mixed reviews.
Some fans were optimistic that Dead Island 2 would be able to avoid the same development pitfalls as its predecessor, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. However, they can rest assured knowing that Dead Island 2 is not canceled, even if we don’t know definitively if Sumo Digital or another studio is working on the project, or how far along the project is in development.
If fans are lucky, maybe they’ll get a more substantial update on Dead Island 2 at E3 2019 in June, but we wouldn’t hold our breath.
Dead Island 2 is in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: THQ Nordic
