Dead Island 2 has become a myth of sorts among video game fans. The original Dead Island was a scrappy first-person zombie game developed by Techland that helped the studio shift into AAA game development. Dead Island 2 was, at the time, seen as the game to take Techland to the next level, like Borderlands 2 was to Borderlands. Since then, everything has gone off the rails for Dead Island 2's development, with little shared about the project in years. Despite that, Deep Silver continues to say development continues.
The last time Dead Island was publicly acknowledged by publisher Deep Silver may have been as far back as December 2020. The Deep Silver Twitter account responded to a fan saying Dead Island 2 wasn't coming, to which Deep Silver said "We wouldn't be so sure about that!" The new update from Deep Silver is similar in nature. The Deep Silver Twitter account responded to a question from a fan, who asked whether Dead Island 2 is still happening. Deep Silver reconfirmed Dead Island 2's development, saying, "It's still happening."
Those hoping for more information about Dead Island 2 are going to be disappointed, though. Deep Silver's latest Twitter message on Dead Island 2 also reiterates that it isn't able to say anything more than a confirmation of its existence at this time. The mystery of Dead Island 2's development continues.
What's currently known about Dead Island 2 is that the current studio working on the project is Deep Silver's internal development team Dambuster Studios. The only other game that Dambuster has made was the poorly received Homefront: The Revolution, which launched in 2016. THQ Nordic confirmed that Dambuster inherited the project in 2019, which would put it around two and a half years into development if Dambuster. Suffice to say, it's not much given what a high-profile project Dead Island 2 is.
The worry, of course, is that Dead Island 2 is actually dead in the water. After all, it has been over seven years since Dead Island 2 was first announced, and it has jumped between Techland, Yager, Sumo Digital, to land at Dambuster. It's a rather cursed project.
As cursed as it may be, there are still fans of the original Dead Island and its spinoffs hoping for a sequel to eventually be released. Dead Island's mix of silly, over-the-top action and cooperative multiplayer has endeared it to many. Dambuster and Deep Silver just have to finish it.
Dead Island 2 is currently in development.