Is Dead Island 2 Still Coming Out?

The original Dead Island was well received and built a bit of a fan base for itself. It came as no shock, then, that the folks at publisher Deep Silver decided a sequel was in order. The game debuted at E3 2014 with a trailer shown during the PlayStation press conference. Back in those days, zombie games were still all the rage, and Dead Island 2 had plenty of gamers ready for a little more survival action.

Fast forward a few years, however, and Dead Island 2 still hasn't come out. Small amounts of news have escaped about it from time to time, but it's been a long while since fans have seen gameplay. Worse yet, no release date has ever been slapped on Dead Island 2, leaving some to wonder if this once-anticipated title will simply transform into vaporware.

So, is Dead Island 2 still coming out? Are people still working on this game? Or was this zombie game quietly killed off at some point? Here's the latest on what's known about this Dead Island sequel.

Are you familiar with the game hot potato? The video game development version of that has seemingly taken place with Dead Island 2 since it was announced all those years ago. According to GamesRadar, the game was originally being worked on by Techland. Techland then dropped it to work on Dying Light, and so Yager Development took over the job.

But would you believe that's not all? Yager Development was the team behind the work fans saw in Dying Light 2's 2014 E3 trailer, but wouldn't be the game's final developer. The project was then passed to Sumo Digital in 2016, and Sumo managed to hold onto it for a few years. Then, in 2019, Dambuster Studios became the primary developer on Dead Island 2. What a tumultuous journey. What a video game hot potato.

So you're aware now that the responsibility of making Dead Island 2 bounced around a whole lot. But is it still being made now? Let's find out.

If you've been patiently waiting for Dead Island 2, and all the news about its crazy development process hasn't scared you, you'll be pleased to know that the game is indeed still coming. As Game Informer reported in Dec. 2020, all sorts of rumors have floated around about Dead Island 2 potentially being cancelled. It was Deep Silver, though, that let fans know the game was still on the way. The news didn't come by way of any official public statement, but rather, via a reply to a tweet someone had posted.

On Dec. 2, 2020, a gamer by the name of @SfeinP responded to a tweet about Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell by writing, "Dead [I]sland 2?" From there, another gamer named @yronyy posted a follow-up, telling @SfeinP, "Give up man. Its not coming. Just move on to Dying Light lol." In a move that was likely a surprise to both, the official Deep Silver Twitter account responded to both by writing, "We wouldn't be so sure about that!" 

So while some are apparently comfortable pronouncing Dead Island 2, well, dead, the publisher of the game apparently feels differently.