It has now been officially revealed that Sumo Digital has taken over development of Dead Island 2.
In a statement, Koch Media CEO Dr Klemens Kundratitz (Koch owns publisher Deep Silver) was upbeat about the decision. Klemens states that Sumo Digital understands the brand and had an excellent vision that aligned with what Koch wanted. Klemens ends by saying giving the project to Sumo was a perfect decision. Sumo Digital COO Paul Porter also shared a statement, indicating plans to exceed what fans are expecting with an ambitious design.
Sumo Digital is a prolific UK-based video game developer, with an enviable resume that goes back over a decade. Among their biggest past and present hits are Outrun 2, Virtua Tennis 2009, the Sonic All-Stars Racing franchise, and LittleBigPlanet 3. Sumo also does support work for several other major game releases, with the most recent being Forza Horizon 2‘s Fast And The Furious DLC and Disney Infinity 3.0. They also happen to be working on Xbox One exclusive Crackdown 3, which is also set for a 2016 release.
This announcement comes a few months short of a year since publisher Deep Silver parted ways with the previous developer, Yager. Later that month, Yager filed for insolvency, but survives to this day. They spoke about their regrets on losing the project last October.
Dead Island 2 is still planned for release in 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. You can read about early plans for it to feature an all-new cast and story, as well as when Dying Light‘s producer stated he wanted to take over the project following Yager.