Despite reassuring fans of the series earlier this year that a follow-up entry is still in the works, publisher Deep Silver has remained troublingly quiet in regards to Dead Island 2.
For those unaware, the long-gestating sequel has spent several years in development hell, an unfortunate fate put into motion when series creator Techland opted to work on a new IP, Dying Light (soon due to get its own sequel) instead. Hope for a timely release was renewed back in 2014 when, following a successful pitch, production was offloaded to Yager Development. No less than a year later, Deep Silver confirmed that the German studio had been dropped from the project for what, at the time, was reported to be a result of each company’s respective visions for the title “falling out of alignment.”
And so here we are, steadily approaching the ten-year anniversary of Dead Island‘s release with no sequel in sight. We know, of course, that one of Deep Silver’s internal developers, Dambuster Studios, has since been drafted in to shepherd the game through to release, but that’s largely where any official updates come to an abrupt halt.
Reddit user MrJaxerino, however, has decided to break radio silence and update patient fans on the current status quo.
So Dead Island 2 is still in development by THQ Nordic (which we already knew). The new information I learned from a developer on the game is that the team is looking to target a 2020 release to launch alongside the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett. Also, the team is also apparently working on some new gore technology that utilizes “sub polygon displacement”. I am in no way an expert on these things but that is what I was told. Finally, as a kind of obvious statement, the team at THQ Nordic does have PS5 dev kits and they do in fact look like the leaks.
As always, it’s worth cautioning against taking unverifiable rumors such as these at face value, though if accurate, THQ Nordic appears to be aiming for a release in the latter half of next year. Both Sony and Microsoft are expected to debut their new hardware around the holiday period, meaning if Deep Silver is to capitalize on next-gen, we’re looking at a general winter launch.
Assuming MrJaxerino’s source is reliable, then, it’s looking likely that Dead Island 2‘s new and improved self will debut at next year’s E3 or, alternatively, at either aforementioned platform holder’s initial console reveal. The end is finally in sight.