After an extended absence of Dead Island 2 news, Deep Silver confirmed today that the development team is no longer working on the title.

Dead Island 2 was revealed through a cinematic trailer shown during E3 2014. Under development team Yager (Spec Ops: The Line, Yager, Dreadnought), the sequel to 2011’s Techland-developed title is expected to be less serious than the original; fanatic zombie-killers are taking the apocalypse in stride, wreaking havoc in sunny California. However a new statement from publisher Deep Silver claims that Yager has been dropped from Dead Island 2. According to the statement made to Kotaku, the decision was made “after careful consideration” to deliver “the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve”:

“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.”

Dead Island released for the PS3, 360 and PC/Mac/Linux platforms back in 2011, from Techland and publisher Deep Silver. Based on the tropical island of Banoi off the coast of Papua New Guinea, players are tasked with surviving a zombie outbreak by any means necessary on an overrun tropical resort. Weapons can be created from any scraps and leftover objects on the island, resulting in borderline insane combinations, such as a baseball bat with two circular-saw blades fastened at one end. The stand-alone expansion Dead Island: Riptide was released in 2011, with two more spin-offs arriving in later years.

Deviating from the FPS/Survival mechanics of the previous titles, Escape Dead Island released in November 2014, taking players on a psychological horror fueled trip through Narapela, documenting the happenings that previously occurred in the Banoi incident. Developed by Stunlock Studios, Dead Island: Epidemic is a free-to-play multiplayer action title available through Steam Early Access. The four-player top-down-shooter/MOBA hybrid involves defending and gathering supplies while fending off the countless zombies of Banoi.

Dead Island 2 was originally expected to release in Spring 2015 for PC, Xbox One and PS4, but was since pushed back into 2016.

Source: Kotaku
Image courtesy of Yager, Deep Silver