Dead Island 2 just dropped its developer

Update: Yager told GamesIndustry.biz that the split arose when the two companies' "respective visions of the project fell out of alignment." Yager plans to reveal more of its future plans at Gamescom in August.

Original story: Yager is no longer working on Dead Island 2. Publisher Deep Silver, which owns the rights to the franchise, made the announcement in a brief press release on Tuesday.

"With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver has always been dedicated to delivering the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve," the press release states. "After careful consideration, today we announce the decision to part ways with development partner Yager. We will continue working towards bringing our vision of Dead Island 2 to life, and we will share further information at a later stage."

Deep Silver didn't say who it plans to give the project to next, but apparently things just weren't working out with Yager, otherwise known as the developer of Spec Ops: The Line and Dreadnought. The publisher confirmed in April that Dead Island 2 would miss its spring 2015 release window and instead arrive sometime in 2016, though even that later date is in question now.

Delay aside, we haven't heard much about Dead Island 2 since it was announced at E3 2014. The studio behind the original Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide, Techland, released its own zombie survival successor Dying Light in January.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

Latest in Survival Horror
Silent Hill f art showing a person covered in plants
Silent Hill f has been pre-emptively banned in Australia, with no reason given for the 'refused classification' rating
Silent Hill 2
Famed Silent Hill artist Masahiro Ito, creator of Pyramid Head, says scrapped concepts of freaky creatures "still exist in my mind" and "their children may be" used in future titles
Silent Hill f: A close-up on Hinako Shimizu's face during the reveal trailer for the new Silent Hill game.
Silent Hill f: Everything we know about the new survival horror game
Silent Hill 2 Remake
Silent Hill 2 Remake devs spent many hours "watching, reading, discussing" fan theories about the iconic Labyrinth level and wanted to "incorporate as many" of them as possible
Silent Hill 2 Remake
Silent Hill 2 remake dev says Bloober played up the original's iconic toilet scene to punish its protagonist for being a bad husband: "The theme here is disgust"
Pyramid Head stands in the rain in the Silent Hill 2 remake.
Silent Hill 2 remake director had no choice but to make Pyramid Head "more aggressive and faster" during his iconic fight: "We've been losing something, but we've been gaining something, too"
Latest in News
A screenshot from MindsEye showing a character leaning out of a car, shooting another car with a gun.
GTA veteran says the games industry needs to "get smarter" about what people actually want: "There are so many games, and I think we're starting to feel the effects"
Posing with a rifle in the Fallout 76 Ghoul update
Fallout 76's art director "had to fight really hard" so Bethesda would make the MMO's map bigger than Skyrim's
Minecraft movie image of Jack Black as steve
Don't expect Minecraft to go free-to-play anytime soon, as Mojang says "It doesn't really work with the way we built it"
Yasuke looking over the water to a shrine during sunset in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows has an entire island stuffed with adorable kittens you need to check out, and it's based on an actual Japanese cat paradise
phase zero key art showing zombies in a hallway
Former Witcher 3 and Dying Light devs reveal their Resident Evil homage, complete with PS1-style fixed cameras
Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System was only created because WB Games wanted something to combat Batman Arkham Asylum's second-hand sales, exec says