Another one of 2015’s budding hopefuls has slipped to next year, after Deep Silver revealed via Twitter that its upcoming open-world zombie sequel Dead Island 2 has been delayed into 2016.
The studio opted to postpone the follow-up in order to realise the original vision – one that evidently grew in the telling. Here’s the official press release per Deep Silver.
“We have always set ourselves a big goal for Dead Island 2: to create the sequel that takes Dead Island to the next level. A game that takes what our fans tell us they love about Dead Island–multiple different characters to play with, co-op, and turning a paradise setting into a zombie slaughter melee–and a game that adds a ton more content and combat options on top of that.
“And we wanted to have all of that that done for release in spring 2015. We have been looking at the game long and hard, and we have decided we didn’t reach that goal we set out to achieve quite yet. This is why we have decided to delay Dead Island 2 to 2016.”
With Techland now hunkering down on the surprisingly successful Dying Light, developing duties on Dead Island 2 have been passed onto Yager, the creative minds behind acclaimed first-person shooter Spec Ops: The Line. With a deeper emphasis on co-operative play, Deep Silver is pushing DI2 to include “never-before-seen” handcrafted weapons, not to mention a seamless multiplayer component that can support up to 8 players.
Initially revealed during Sony’s E3 press conference last year, the tone of Dead Island 2 is a ways away from the sombre, melancholic reveal of the original game back in 2011, offering up a more riotous experience that essentially throws caution to the wind. Slated for Xbox One, PC and PS4, it’s understood that Deep Silver is prepping an open beta on Sony’s latter platform closer to release.
Dead Island 2 will now launch alongside a familiar, reanimated face in the form of Overkill’s The Walking Dead when Deep Silver’s open-world sequel hits in 2016.