Deep Silver's 'Active Development' On Dead Island 2 Doesn't Instill Much Confidence

gamerant.com:

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.

Dying Light 2 Features Dead Island Easter Eggs

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.

As a result, it is likely that Dead Island 2 will be going up against Dying Light 2,