Dead Island 2 Gets New Developer on Board

Ever since Deep Silver cut ties with YAGER, Dead Island 2’s future has seemed uncertain. With no other developer lined up to take the reins of the project after more than six months, a cancellation seemed all but inevitable to me. However, a replacement has indeed been found. 

MCV has the scoop on the studio chosen by Deep Silver: it’s Sumo Digital, a UK-based studio known for its work on a variety of titles spanning various genres (recently they have worked on LittleBigPlanet 3 and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed just to cite a couple, and they also have worked on several ports, like the Xbox 360 version of Forza Horizon 2).

The studio’s resume doesn’t include anything quite like Dead Island, bu Koch Media CEO Klemens Kundratitz claims the company understands the brand and had a strong vision on how to move forward with the title:

(Sumo showed so much understanding of the brand, had creative ideas and an excellent, vision that was aligned with our own,) Koch Media CEO Dr Klemens Kundratitz told MCV.

(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.)

…

(It’s an honour to be charged with the evolution of such an important franchise in Deep Silver’s catalogue,) said Sumo COO Paul Porter. (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.)

Thanks, Eurogamer.