Dead Island 2 is back on track with a new development team at the helm

By Danny Cowan Published March 10, 2016

Publisher Deep Silver has hired a replacement studio to finish up work on Dead Island 2, an action-RPG sequel that stalled midway through development after its initial creative team was dropped from the project.

UK studio Sumo Digital is now in charge of delivering a finished version of Dead Island 2, following up on its recent work with the Disney Infinity and LittleBigPlanet franchises.

“It’s an honor to be charged with the evolution of such an important franchise in Deep Silver’s catalog,” Sumo Digital COO Paul Porter said in a statement released today. “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.”

Spec Ops: The Line creator Yager Development was previously in charge of Dead Island 2‘s development before Deep Silver removed the team from the project, citing creative differences between developer and publisher.

“Our team is made of the best creative minds and tech specialists, who all share a common identity,” Yager Development managing director Timo Ullmann told GamesIndustry.biz last year. “The team worked with enthusiasm to take Dead Island 2 to a new level of quality. However, Yager and Deep Silver’s respective visions of the project fell out of alignment, which led to the decision that has been made.”

Yager Development filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter, and development of Dead Island 2 stalled while Deep Silver searched for a replacement studio.

Sumo Digital was recently named as the development team in charge of porting Harmonix’s Rock Band 4 to PC platforms. Harmonix is currently raising the necessary cash for Rock Band 4‘s PC port via crowdfunding site Fig.

Fans awaiting the next entry in the Dead Island series can tide themselves over with the upcoming release of Dead Island Definitive Collection, a remastered series compilation premiering in May for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PCs.

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Dani lights a cigarette as zombies attack her from behind in Dead Island 2 key art.

I’ve always found myself interested in new technologies that could possibly enhance how we play or experience games. Whether it’s a computing innovation like cloud gaming or new controller features like the DualSense’s Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers, I love testing those things out. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to try Alexa Game Control during my recent hands-on preview experience with Dead Island 2.
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Hey, Alexa
Dead Island 2 players can toggle Alexa Game Control on when they first show up in Bel-Air after the game’s opening. It has a dedicated tab in the Options Menu where players can choose to enable or disable it, choose whether they want it to work automatically or with push to talk, set the voice capture threshold, and decide which microphone they wish to use.
After enabling Alexa Game Control, I immediately noticed a ring at the bottom-left corner of the screen. When I spoke, this lit up with blue and teal colors, like the top ring on an Alexa device, and text confirming whether it could do the action or not would appear. Not having to say “Hey, Alexa” also means it implemented itself into the game smoothly. At first, I tried to see if voice commands would work for basic things like walking, jumping, and dodging, to no avail. After this, I hopped to a save I had placed later in the game and opened its tutorial menu to see what Alexa Game Control could really do.
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Oi, zombie!
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