According to Deep Silver,
Dead Island 2 is in active development, presumably at Sumo Digital. Presumably, as Sumo is currently co-developing
Crackdown 3 (the British producer is Microsoft's main partner on the threequel) and recently co-develope
d Forza Horizon 3, the
Hitman reboot and
Team Sonic Racing, so it's understandable that making
Dead Island 2 may be just too much for the studio.
Dead Island 2's development story is filled with very unusual and shocking twists, as Techland, the studio responsible for the first and highly successful
Dead Island was originally set to develop
Dead Island 2, but instead decided to focus on
Dying Light (its sequel was announced at last month's E3). Finally, Deep Silver decided to team up with
Spec Ops: The Line creators Yager Development in 2013 .
The game was officially announced at Sony's E3 2014 media briefing and the first trailer left many players disturbed, as
Dead Island 2 dramatically changed the aesthetics and tone of the first game, as Yager's
Dead Island was heading to the sunny and playful California. In 2015, Deep Silver announced that Yager has been dropped from the game and development will be moved to another developer.
In March 2016, UK-based studio Sumo Digital announced that it took over the development - it was the last time we've heard about Dead Island 2. Yesterday, Deep Silver reiterated that "Dead Island 2 is still in active development. As soon as we have news to share you'll see it here." What's even more telling, it took Techland five years and one reboot to finish the development on 2011's Dead Island...
Dead Island is heading to California for a Summer that never dies! Grab your friends and become the zombie's apocalypse in the co-op vacation of a lifetime.
Dead Island 2 was originally due to launch spring 2015.