Dead Island 2 Delayed after Developer is Fired

Dead Island 2: The sequel no one is particularly asking for.

Not that I expect that to ever become the official tagline, but with the release of Dying Light, it might as well be. Dead Island was an interesting game and an interesting premise bogged down with glitches, bugs, and of course, hidden misogyny.  And then the second game came out and destroyed any goodwill with an even weaker experience and blatant misogyny.

Well, Dead Island 2 was announced at last year’s E3, and there was a ray of hope for the franchise: the developer working on it was Yager—a lesser-known developer who was recently catapulted into fame for being the force behind the excellent Spec Ops: The Line. Perhaps, with this developer’s proficiency in storytelling and gameplay, the Dead Island series might go somewhere.

But sadly, it’s not to be: Deep Silver, the publisher, has just announced today that Yager is officially off the project. Time to plug Dying Light back in, I guess.

With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver has always been dedicated to delivering the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve. After careful consideration, today we announce the decision to part ways with development partner YAGER. We will continue working towards bringing our vision of Dead Island 2 to life, and we will share further information at a later stage.

So now we have a longer wait till the game’s release, and we have no idea who will be making it at all. That’s promising. But then, maybe the extra development time will help it become something better than the last two games. Who knows?