Dead Island 2
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Dead Island 2
Dead Island 2 cover art.jpg
Cover art
Developer(s) Dambuster Studios[a]
Publisher(s) Deep Silver
Series Dead Island
Engine Unreal Engine 4[1]
Platform(s)
PlayStation 4
PlayStation 5
Windows
Xbox One
Xbox Series X/S
Release February 3, 2023
Genre(s) Action role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Dead Island 2 is an upcoming action role-playing game developed by Dambuster Studios and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to the 2011 video game Dead Island and the third major installment in the Dead Island series. Set several months after the events of Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide, Dead Island 2 differentiates itself from its predecessors by taking place in the city of Los Angeles, which has been quarantined due to the zombie outbreak. The game is slated to release for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 3, 2023.

Announced in 2014, the game has undergone a difficult development period due to multiple changes with the studios working on it. Yager Development was originally hired to develop Dead Island 2 in 2012, but was removed from the project in 2015 and replaced by Sumo Digital the following year. Sumo Digital would also be removed, with Dambuster, an internal studio of Deep Silver, becoming the developers in 2019.[2]


Contents
1 Gameplay
2 Plot
3 Development
4 In popular culture
5 Notes
6 References
Gameplay
Dead Island 2 takes place in an open-world Los Angeles, San Francisco, dubbed HELL-A and an undisclosed third location in California, unlike the first game which was set on the fictitious island of Banoi off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The game's combat has different mechanics than its predecessors. Dead Island 2 also includes several features from its predecessors, such as the "rage" and crafting systems.

Plot
A couple of months after the events of Dead Island, the United States Armed Forces has put California under a full quarantine restricted zone due to a new and stronger zombie outbreak.

Development
Techland was originally set to develop Dead Island 2, but instead they decided to focus on developing Dying Light with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.[3] Deep Silver went looking for a developer until Yager Development pitched the game to Deep Silver in Q3 2012 and got the deal.[4] Yager established a new division, Yager Productions GmbH, for development of Dead Island 2.[5] As announced at Sony's E3 2014 media briefing, Dead Island 2 will be more vibrant than its predecessors.[6] The game was originally scheduled for a Q2 2015 release.[7]

At Gamescom 2014, Deep Silver demonstrated gameplay footage from an early version of the game. According to the presented content, the game is set in California, including landmarks such as the Santa Monica Pier and Hollywood, as well as many locations in San Francisco. Similarly, only a fraction of the weapon modifications and the new zombies have been shown at the stage. Furthermore, Deep Silver stated that the game will feature four playable characters,[8] though only two were shown at the Gamescom Demo. It will also feature eight-player cooperative multiplayer.[9]

In July 2015, Deep Silver announced that Yager has been dropped from developing the game and development would be moved to another unnamed developer.[10] The managing director of Yager Development, Timo Ullmann, later stated that the company's departure from the project occurred because "Yager and Deep Silver's respective visions of the project fell out of alignment".[11] Yager Productions filed for insolvency in July 2015.[12]

In March 2016, UK-based studio Sumo Digital announced that it had taken over the development.[13] In August 2017, Deep Silver reiterated that the game was still in development, making a similar statement again in July 2018.[14][15] In August 2019, THQ Nordic announced that development of the game had changed hands to Dambuster Studios, an internal studio of Deep Silver.[16]

A 2015 playable version of the still-under-development game while at Yager was leaked in June 2020.[5]

At Gamescom 2022 the game was officially shown off with two new trailers as well as a character reveal of one of the six playable characters. Dead Island 2 is scheduled for release on February 3, 2023.

In popular culture
In 2022, a trailer for Goat Simulator 3 used elements from an early Dead Island 2 trailer as a bait-and-switch before revealing the titular goats.[17]

Notes
Development duties originally handled by Yager Development (2012–2016) and Sumo Digital (2016–2019)
References
Lemne, Bengt (21 August 2014). "How Dead Island 2 pushed Unreal Engine 4 beyond its early limits". Game Reactor. Retrieved 26 January 2022.