Dead Island 2 has been in development turmoil for more than six years now and as it turns out, still intends to see the light of day in the near future.
Originally announced for current-generation platforms, developer Dambuster Studios is now working to land Dead Island 2 for next-generation consoles as well, making the sequel another cross-generation release for the marketplace.
While no official confirmation has been provided, a number of recently posted job listings (via GamesRadar) reveal Dambuster Studios to be searching for several candidates for the long-awaited zombie follow-up. Going through their respective descriptions further points out that selected applicants will get a chance to work on “the next installment [Dead Island 2] in the world renowned Dead Island franchise” as a “ground-breaking title for current and future platforms.”
Techland was initially tagged to develop Dead Island 2 but decided to prioritize the critically acclaimed Dying Light instead, forcing publisher Deep Silver to find a replacement. Yager Development was then handed over the sequel in 2014 but that only lasted for a while. Citing creative differences, Deep Silver let Yager Development go after about a year.
Dead Island 2 remained without a developer once again before Sumo Digital stepped in to take over development in 2017. However, that was just not meant to be as well. Dambuster Studios was revealed to be the new developer last year alongside assurances that Dead Island 2 has not and will not be scrapped.
Hence, Dead Island 2 has been switching developers for so long that another console generation is about to begin, which must have forced Deep Silver to reconsider whatever early designs were drawn on the board. In that light, expecting a release anytime soon should be thrown out unless Deep Silver wants to wash its hands off the game. Dead Island 2 needs to be something special on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and not rush for the sake of being a cross-generation game.
Deep Silver has previously stated that Dead Island is an important brand for the publisher and hence, an installment needs to be right. That is actually reassuring to know and further cements the presumption that Dambuster Studios will be spending long hours to make the sequel worthy of the franchise. However, that also implies that whatever early gameplay and features were shown for Dead Island 2 could possibly have been altered over the years.
