At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Dead Island 2 is not dead. We’ve mentioned it numerous times before, in fact. And according to rumour, it appears that we might finally see it this year.
Per industry insider Tom Henderson in a YouTube video, speaking to people close to the game’s development, he claims that Dead Island 2 is still in development over at Dambuster Studios, and we could be hearing about it soon. “According to everyone that I’ve been speaking to… the game is in a decent state, and it could be announced pretty soon with some kind of gameplay trailer.”
As for when the game would be released, Henderson goes with the approximate timeframe of “somewhere in Q4 2022”, depending on how the current development cycle goes.
And to add a bit more to that, Henderson also drops some preliminary plot details. “You’re on a plane and there’s a zombie outbreak on a plane… eventually the plane crashes into Hollywood, you survive and it’s then your job to survive on the ground.”
Neither Deep Silver nor Dambuster have commented on or responded to any of this as of yet.
To recap the history of Dead Island 2, it was announced way back in 2014, with a 2015 release date. However, that was under developer Yager Development (who eventually went bankrupt). After a series of delays, the game was handed over to Sumo Digital. Publisher Deep Silver then switched developers again, to Dambuster Studios.
A 2015 build of the game was subsequently leaked to the internet a few years ago.
Currently, Dead Island 2 is being developed for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.