After being left in a state of limbo when original developer Yager parted ways with publisher Deep Silver, Dead Island 2 is now in the hands of Sumo Digital, website MCV has confirmed. The UK-based studio was brought on board to resume production of the game because they “showed so much understanding” of the game’s brand, “had creative ideas and an excellent, vision that was aligned with our own,” Koch Media CEO Dr Klemens Kundratitz said to MCV.
Kundratitz continued to sing the praises of Sumo in the interview, saying:
“It just made perfect sense for us to move the project to them. We will reveal more details at a later stage, but for now I’d like to say that we are obviously super excited about the progress that we are making with them.”
Information regarding Dead Island 2‘s release and continued gameplay updates went dark last year, leading many to suspect something may be amiss with the sequel to the 2011 original. Those concerns became reality when original developer for Dead Island 2 – Yager – confirmed they were no longer working on the game, and had parted ways with Deep Silver.
However, the problems of the past don’t look like they’ll be repeating themselves, as Sumo COO Paul Porter has nothing but excitement about his team being given the opportunity to work on the series.
It’s an honour to be charged with the evolution of such an important franchise in Deep Silver’s catalogue. We’re looking forward to exceeding fan expectation with an ambitious design that we’re confident will take bone-crunching, visceral, zombie action to a whole new level.
Expect more news on Dead Island 2 to be revealed later this year. In the meantime, if you’re in need of scratching your zombie-killing itch, you can’t go wrong with giving Dying Light a go.