Dead Island 2

Dead Island 2 is an upcoming action role-playing game developed by Dambuster Studios and published by Deep Silver. It is a sequel to the 2011 video game Dead Island and the third major installment in the Dead Island series. Set about 10 years after the events of Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide, Dead Island 2 differentiates itself from its predecessors by taking place in the city of Los Angeles, which has been quarantined due to the zombie outbreak. The game is scheduled to be released on April 21, 2023, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Dead Island 2
Cover art
Developer(s)Dambuster Studios[lower-alpha 1]
Publisher(s)Deep Silver
SeriesDead Island
EngineUnreal Engine 4[1]
Platform(s)
ReleaseApril 21, 2023
Genre(s)Action role-playing, Survival horror
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Announced in 2014, the game has undergone a difficult development period due to multiple changes with the studios working on it. Yager Development was originally hired to develop Dead Island 2 in 2012, but was removed from the project in 2015 and replaced by Sumo Digital the following year. Sumo Digital was also removed, with Dambuster, an internal studio of Deep Silver, becoming the developers in 2019.[2]

Gameplay

Dead Island 2 takes place in an open-world Los Angeles and San Francisco. The game's combat has different mechanics than its predecessors. Dead Island 2 also includes several features from its predecessors, such as the "rage" and crafting systems.

Plot

About 10 years after the events of Dead Island,[3] the United States government and US military are forced to put California under a full quarantine restricted zone due to a new and stronger zombie outbreak.

Development

Techland was originally set to develop Dead Island 2, but instead they decided to focus on developing Dying Light with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.[4] Deep Silver went looking for a developer until Yager Development pitched the game to Deep Silver in Q3 2012 and got the deal.[5] Yager established a new division, Yager Productions GmbH, for development of Dead Island 2.[6] As announced at Sony's E3 2014 media briefing, Dead Island 2 will be more vibrant than its predecessors.[7] The game was originally scheduled for a Q2 2015 release.[8]

At Gamescom 2014, Deep Silver demonstrated gameplay footage from an early version of the game. According to the presented content, the game is set in California, including landmarks such as the Santa Monica Pier and Hollywood, as well as many locations in San Francisco. Similarly, only a fraction of the weapon modifications and the new zombies have been shown at the stage. Furthermore, Deep Silver stated that the game will feature four playable characters,[4] though only two were shown at the Gamescom Demo. It will also feature eight-player cooperative multiplayer.[9]

In July 2015, Deep Silver announced that Yager has been dropped from developing the game and development would be moved to another unnamed developer.[10] The managing director of Yager Development, Timo Ullmann, later stated that the company's departure from the project occurred because "Yager and Deep Silver's respective visions of the project fell out of alignment".[11] Yager Productions filed for insolvency in July 2015.[12]

In March 2016, UK-based studio Sumo Digital announced that it had taken over the development.[13] In August 2017, Deep Silver reiterated that the game was still in development, making a similar statement again in July 2018.[14][15] In August 2019, THQ Nordic announced that development of the game had changed hands to Dambuster Studios, an internal studio of Deep Silver.[16]

A 2015 playable version of the still-under-development game while at Yager was leaked in June 2020.[6]

The game was shown at Gamescom 2022, where the February 3, 2023 release date was announced. In November 2022, it was announced that the game would be delayed until April 28, 2023, to allow additional development time.[17] In February 2023, the release date was moved to a week earlier on April 21.[18]

In 2022, a trailer for Goat Simulator 3 used elements from an early Dead Island 2 trailer as a bait-and-switch before revealing the titular goats.[19]

Notes
  1. Development duties originally handled by Yager Development (2012–2016) and Sumo Digital (2016–2019).

References
  1. Lemne, Bengt (August 21, 2014). "How Dead Island 2 pushed Unreal Engine 4 beyond its early limits". Game Reactor. Archived from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  2. O'Connor, James (May 20, 2020). "New Saints Row And Dead Island 2 Are Not Planned Until After March 2021". GameSpot. Archived from the original on May 19, 2021. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  3. "86 Rapid-Fire Questions About Dead Island 2". YouTube. January 25, 2023. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  4. Kollar, Phil (2014). "Dead Island 2". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 19, 2014. Retrieved June 17, 2014.
  5. Yin-Poole, Wesley (July 1, 2014). "California Dreamin': Dead Island 2 embraces the slaughter". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on July 6, 2014. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  6. Yin-Poole, Wesley (June 6, 2020). "People are playing a five-year-old build of Dead Island 2". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  7. "Dead Island 2- Official E3 Announce Trailer | PS4". YouTube. Archived from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  8. Good, Owen (June 9, 2014). "Dead Island 2 announced, planned for Spring 2015". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  9. Purchese, Robert (June 12, 2014). "Dead Island 2 has opt-out 8-player multiplayer". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  10. Futter, Mike (July 14, 2015). "Deep Silver Drops Yager As Developer Of Dead Island 2". Game Informer. Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  11. Matulef, Jeffery (July 15, 2015). "Dead Island 2 is no longer being made by Yager". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  12. Hurley, Leon (July 29, 2015). "Yager's fine. It's just the Dead Island 2 bit that's shut down". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on September 11, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  13. Calvin, Alex (March 10, 2016). "Sumo Digital takes over Dead Island 2 development". MCV/Develop. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  14. Yin-Poole, Wesley (May 8, 2017). "Dead Island 2 is still alive, Deep Silver insists". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on July 5, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  15. Prescott, Shaun (July 6, 2018). "Dead Island 2 is still coming, says official Twitter account". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on July 6, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
  16. Romano, Sal (August 14, 2019). "Deep Silver Dambuster Studios takes over Dead Island 2 development". Gematsu. Archived from the original on August 14, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  17. Romano, Sal (November 17, 2022). "Dead Island 2 delayed to April 28, 2023". Gematsu. Archived from the original on November 17, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  18. Yang, George (February 14, 2023). "Dead Island 2 Release Date Moved Forward by One Week". IGN. Archived from the original on February 13, 2023. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
  19. "Summer Game Fest: Goat Simulator 3 World Premiere Trailer". YouTube. June 9, 2022. Archived from the original on September 10, 2022. Retrieved June 10, 2022.
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