Yes, again – Dead Island 2‘s situation is about to become similar to what Duke Nukem Forever did in the past…

Dead Island 2 was announced in June 2014. Back then, Yager Development was responsible for the game (they previously made Spec Ops: The Line in 2012). It was going smooth until July 2015, when Yager was suddenly out of the picture. Silence and the smell of the zombies were lingering around the game until March 2016, when suddenly, Sumo Digital – who released Crackdown 3 at the last possible deadline set by Microsoft – was brought in. We can now cross them out as well, as THQ Nordic AB’s latest financial report revealed that a third studio has begun work on Dead Island 2!

The team behind the game now is none other than Deep Silver Dambuster Studios, who – after Crytek UK’s shutdown in 2014 – took over Homefront: The Revolution’s development (and the game wasn’t good… until several updates). So, in short, THQ Nordic has pulled the development completely in-house, as Deep Silver is owned by THQ Nordic AB, the parent company. It took them five years to do the right thing.

We don’t know more details, maybe Sumo Digital hasn’t done a quality job on the game (we don’t know the real reasons behind THQ Nordic kicking them out…), but think about it: Dying Light, which was developed by Techland, the makers of the first Dead Island, came out since, and its sequel will also likely beat Dead Island 2 to the punch. (And it’s also going to be a cross-gen title, which is official – we wrote about it before.)

So THQ Nordic will have a tough time to show something proper – Dead Island 2’s development is nothing short of catastrophic.

Source: Gematsu