Dead Island 2 shuffles back to 2016

Deep Silver announced two things about Dead Island 2 last summer: First, that it would not take place on an island, and second, that it would be out in the spring of 2015. One of those statements is no longer true.

To be fair, it's not like Deep Silver and Yager Development, the team actually making the game, were being intentionally deceptive. But sometimes things don't work out quite as expected. "We have always set ourselves a big goal for Dead Island 2: to create the sequel that takes Dead Island to the next level. A game that takes what our fans tell us they love about Dead Island—multiple different characters to play with, co-op, and turning a paradise setting into a zombie slaughter melee—and a game that adds a ton more content and combat options on top of that," the Dead Island 2 team wrote on Twitter. "And we wanted to have all of that that done for release in Spring 2015."

But after "looking at the game long and hard," the studio decided that it isn't quite where it should be, and thus elected to push it back to 2016. It didn't offer any hints as to when in 2016 it might be out, saying only that its focus at the moment is "purely on development," and that more information will be released later.

"We know that our fans will be disappointed by this news," it wrote, "but by giving Dead Island 2 more time we are confident that everyone will get a better game to play as a result."

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.