A job listing at Dambuster Studios, the new developer of Dead Island 2, suggests the long-awaited zombie sequel will be available on both current- and next-gen consoles.
The listing in question is for the position of art director. It specifically cites "the next installment in the world renowned Dead Island franchise." More pertinently, of the eight job listings on Dambuster's site that are related to Dead Island 2, it's the only one that describes it as "a ground-breaking title for current and future platforms."
This isn't 100% infallible confirmation, but it is a pretty solid indicator that Dead Island 2 will be a cross-gen game. It's darkly funny that Dead Island 2 has been in development for so long, and has changed hands so many times, that an entirely new generation of consoles will likely launch before it. At the same time, it may make financial sense for Dambuster and parent publisher Koch Media to target new platforms as well as existing ones. If they're available, the market is big enough, and porting to next-gen isn't unreasonably difficult, why not? Hell, maybe a new console generation will give the game the shot in the arm it so dearly needs.
Because cross-gen availability aside, the bigger question with Dead Island 2 is when we'll get to play it - which is still better than wondering if we'll actually get to play it, which was unclear for several years. The project shifted from Yager Development to Sumo Digital and finally to Dambuster, and while Koch Media maintains that "Dead Island is a very important brand for us and we've got to get it right," we haven't seen any sign of life from Dead Island 2 in ages. At the same time, Dambuster is clearly hiring for a reason, so we'll just have to trust that we'll hear something before the heat death of the universe.
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