Eight years ago, an open-world zombie game known as Dead Island 2 was announced at E3 2014, initially being developed by Techland. It showed off a cinematic trailer giving an idea of what players should expect, where California has been placed under quarantine due to a zombie outbreak. After that, however, the game had been put through development hell, as Techland would then go on to work on the similar open-world zombie game Dying Light. This forced Dead Island 2 to find a new developer, which was also a turbulent cycle.

After Techland dropped the project, Dead Island 2 was passed around to four new developers. It first was given to Yager, but the studio's doors were shuttered in 2015. Afterward, it was picked up by Sumo Digital, before eventually being given to Dambuster Studios in 2019. Some fans might be understandably worried about the game being tossed around to several developers, though Deep Silver has made statements regarding Dead Island 2's troubled development. The publisher recently made another statement that confirms that the game is still in active development even after all this time.

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Deep Silver's Statement and Competition

The statement from Deep Silver was provided to GamesRadar+, saying "we have confirmed that the game is in active development, and will share more details once we are ready." This statement was provided after a leak from gaming insider Tom Henderson, indicating that Dead Island 2's development is going smoothly, and that it is likely to be released this year. The leak states that a gameplay trailer would also be provided soon, giving the first gameplay footage of the game in over several years.

Promo art featuring characters from Dead Island 2

As a result, it is likely that Dead Island 2 will be going up against Dying Light 2, which was released very recently. Both games are open-world zombie games that both started development with Techland as its original developer. Dying Light 2 received generally favorable reviews, where a lot of the praise was given to its open world, melee combat, and parkour gameplay. The parkour in particular is a step-up from the previous game, which helps make it stand out further in comparison to similar zombie titles.

Comparisons between Dead Island 2 and Dying Light 2 will inevitably crop up, with the former currently not having much to stand on. It's rumored that it would be released within Q4 2022, with a backup window of early 2023 if there are any issues during development. With development being so rocky, what was shown beforehand in 2014 is not going to apply with the current vision of Dead Island 2.

Dead Island 2 is in development.

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Source: GamesRadar+