The long-awaited zombie action RPG, Dead Island 2, has been re-revealed with a new trailer at Gamescom's opening night live event. The title, which was originally announced in 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, now also has a new release date after eight years, and will also be coming to current-gen devices.
Many fans believed that the sequel to Techland's Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide would never get released due to the title's infamously turbulent development. Over the course of Dead Island 2's development, the title has been handled by three different developers. Yager Development was originally set to develop Dead Island 2 once Techland opted to focus on the parkour-heavy zombie title Dying Light, but was removed from the project in 2015 and replaced by Sumo Digital in 2016. Sumo Digital would then also be removed from the project, with Deep Silver's Dambuster Studios taking over the project in 2019. Despite this, rumors of Dead Island 2's re-reveal have been circulating for a while now, with Goat Simulator 3's reveal trailer taking full advantage of this by parodying Dead Island 2's original 2014 trailer almost beat-for-beat, albeit with more jet-pack-wearing goats and fewer flesh-eating zombies.
During the Gamescom opening night event, fans were finally given a real Dead Island 2 trailer that showed Dambuster Studios' take on the title, which has kept elements from Yager's original, such as the Californian setting. Alongside the trailer, a new February 2023 release date was given, as well as the confirmation that it will be released across both last and current-gen consoles, as well as PC. Unfortunately for those watching Gamescom 2022, the trailer had to be censored for the show. The uncensored version can be found on the Dead Island YouTube channel.
Dead Island 2's Release Date Was Previously Leaked By Amazon
Amazon leaked Dead Island 2's impending release the other week by posting listings for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of Dead Island 2: Day 1 Edition. The new listing differed from Dead Island 2's previous 2014 pre-order pages - which had long been taken down - and displayed new box art and screenshots of the zombie title that mirror the new visuals seen in the official Gamescom trailer.
If all seems to go smoothly with the rest of the title's development at Dambuster Studios, it will only be a few months to go until Dead Island fans finally get their hands on the long-awaited sequel. Hopefully, after all that time, Dead Island 2 will be worth the nearly-decade-long wait.
Source: Gamescom/YouTube, Dead Island/YouTube
