When Dead Island 2 was first announced in 2014, Spec Ops: The Line studio Yager was at the helm. Then, in 2015, publisher Deep Silver confirmed that it had dropped Yager as developer, before announcing in 2016 that Sumo Digital would take development reins.
But news of the sequel has been scant ever since. The original Dead Island creators, Techland, went on to release a superior open world zombie adventure in Dying Light. Deep Silver did confirm that Dead Island 2 was still in development in May last year, but whether it would resemble the Los Angeles-themed game originally envisioned by Yager, or something else entirely, was anyone's guess.
In 2018, it's probably fair to say that most have written off the chance of ever seeing the game. But when a new mobile spin-off released earlier this week in the form of Dead Island: Survivors, many took to Twitter to query the sequel's status. And it turns out Dead Island 2 is still in development, according to the official Dead Island Twitter account. If you cast your eyes over its recent post history, you'll see several reassurances to fans that the game is still in development.
An example: "What's going on is that it's in development and we won't be showing more until we're ready. Appreciate the wait is painful, but Dead Island 2 is still coming." Meanwhile, the account confirmed that there's no official release date to reveal at present.
When news of Yager's split with Deep Silver emerged, the former attributed the move to conflicting visions. "The team worked with enthusiasm to take Dead Island 2 to a new level of quality," Yager CEO Timo Ullman said. "However, YAGER and Deep Silver's respective visions of the project fell out of alignment, which led to the decision that has been made."
