Dead Island 2 was one of those games that most of us thought would be stuck in development hell forever. Deep Silver initially had Techland bring out the original game. Still, since that team had opted to work on Dying Light afterwards, the studio aimed to deliver another AAA hit with Yager Development. Unfortunately, after being revealed in 2014 with plans of a 2015 release, the game production came to a screeching halt.
That project had a ton of hype built around it. The initial trailer was eye-catching, but the gameplay was anything but enticing. This comes from a report by Gamesindustry.biz. During a developer talk presentation, an audience member asked the speaker about an example of where the development team had veered too far away from the design vision and how it was able to get back on track.
The speaker of this talk, Martin Wein, had one example that instantly came to mind. At the time, Martin was the head of communications for Deep Silver, and Dead Island 2 was a game that made for a perfect example. Martin went on to explain how the Yager Development team was brought in to develop the title. However, it was clear after the team reached a big milestone that they were far off expectations.
I was working on that with the creative team, and we were mightily proud of that [trailer]. But then, about 3 to 4 weeks later, we had a major milestone with the development studio that was in charge at that time. And boy, that game sucked.
It seems that the game was just awful, and even after getting feedback from players, it was clear the developers needed to undergo some big adjustments. Unfortunately, after a few months, during the next milestone, reportedly, nothing really answered the player feedback. As a result, Yager Development was booted from the project. If they had released the game, it might have made some money, but the franchise would have been dead afterwards.
Sometimes you have to make hard decisions. Because we could have, at that point, put out a shit game. It might have made some money, but it would have killed the franchise.
Fortunately, after exchanging a few hands, the game project finally landed in the hands of Dambuster Studios, which eventually saw the game release in 2023. Since then, the game has sold well and received favorable reviews from critics and fans alike. Of course, we’re now waiting to see if we’ll actually get a Dead Island 3 next or if Deep Silver is putting this IP on a bit of a hiatus.
Of course, if you haven’t picked up a copy of the game then it’s available right now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S platforms. You can find our Before You Buy coverage of the game below.
