Dead Island 2 just dropped its developer

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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.

Connor Sheridan
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 was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.