Dead Island 2

Dead Island 2 is an upcoming action role-playing game developed by Dambuster Studios and published by Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is the sequel to the 2011 video game Dead Island and the third major installment in the Dead Island series. The game's main storyline is set several months after the events of Dead Island and Escape Dead Island. Unlike its predecessors, which took place on islands as the titles state, Dead Island 2 takes place in various locations in California. The game saw a difficult development period, with development duties originally handled by Yager Development until Sumo Digital took over in 2016 and then Dambuster Studios in 2019.

Dead Island 2
Developer(s)Dambuster Studios[lower-alpha 1]
Publisher(s)Deep Silver
SeriesDead Island
Platform(s)
Genre(s)Action role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Gameplay

Dead Island 2 takes place in an open-world Los Angeles, San Francisco, and an undisclosed third location in California, unlike the first game which was set on the fictitious island of Banoi off the coast of Papua New Guinea. 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

A couple of months after the events of Dead Island, the United States Armed Forces has put California under a full quarantine restricted zone due to a new 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.[1] Deep Silver went looking for a developer until Yager Development pitched the game to Deep Silver in Q3 2012 and got the deal.[2] Yager established a new division, Yager Productions GmbH, for development of Dead Island 2.[3] As announced at Sony's E3 2014 media briefing, Dead Island 2 will be more vibrant than its predecessors.[4] The game was originally scheduled for a Q2 2015 release.[5]

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,[6] though only two were shown at the Gamescom Demo. It will also feature eight-player cooperative multiplayer.[7]

In July 2015, Deep Silver announced that Yager has been dropped from developing the game and development would be moved to another unnamed developer.[8] 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".[9] Yager Productions filed for insolvency in July 2015.[10]

In March 2016, UK-based studio Sumo Digital announced that it took over the development.[11] In August 2017, Deep Silver reiterated that the game was still in development, making a similar statement again in July 2018.[12][13] In August 2019, THQ Nordic announced that development of the game had changed hands to Dambuster Studios, an internal studio of Deep Silver.[14]

A 2015 playable version of the still-under-development game while at Yager was leaked in June 2020.[3]

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

References
  1. Kollar, Phil. "Dead Island 2". Polygon. Archived from the original on 19 June 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  2. Yin-Poole, Wesley (1 July 2014). "California Dreamin': Dead Island 2 embraces the slaughter". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 6 July 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  3. Yin-Poole, Wesley (June 6, 2020). "People are playing a five-year-old build of Dead Island 2". Eurogamer. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  4. "Dead Island 2- Official E3 Announce Trailer | PS4". Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  5. Good, Owen (9 June 2014). "Dead Island 2 announced, planned for Spring 2015". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  6. "New developer Yager reveals what it calls "the smallest MMO in the world."". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2 October 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  7. Purchese, Robert (12 June 2014). "Dead Island 2 has opt-out 8-player multiplayer". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  8. Futter, Mike (14 July 2015). "Deep Silver Drops Yager As Developer Of Dead Island 2". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 2015-07-15. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  9. Matulef, Jeffery (15 July 2015). "Dead Island 2 is no longer being made by Yager". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  10. Hurley, Leon (29 July 2015). "Yager's fine. It's just the Dead Island 2 bit that's shut down". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on 11 September 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  11. Calvin, Alex (10 March 2016). "Sumo Digital takes over Dead Island 2 development". Develop. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  12. "Dead Island 2 is still alive, Deep Silver insists". Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  13. Prescott, Shaun. "Dead Island 2 is still coming, says official Twitter account". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on July 6, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
  14. "Deep Silver Dambuster Studios takes over Dead Island 2 development". Gematsu. 2019-08-14. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
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