It's not even out yet but people are playing Dead Island 2

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Back from the dead

(Image credit: Koch Media)

It's not even out yet, but people are playing Dead Island 2.

As spotted by Eurogamer, some players have managed to download a five-year-old prototype of the highly-anticipated sequel which seems to have leaked online. 

While much of the assets are seemingly placeholders – and some are missing entirely – it appears the build, which is dated from June 2015, is indeed the work of original developer Yager. Just a month after this build was created, the company parted ways with its publisher, Deep Silver, with Yager admitting the “respective visions of the project fell out of alignment”.

Here's a bit of the June 2015 build in action: 

The bigger question with Dead Island 2, of course, is when – or even if – we'll get to play the final thing. It was unclear for several years if the game would ever exit development hell, the project shifting 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've heard very little about Dead Island 2 since then.

That said, a job listing at Dambuster Studios, the new developer of Dead Island 2, suggested the long-awaited zombie sequel will be available on both current- and next-gen consoles. Unsurprisingly, though, we're still without a formal release window, let alone a concrete date.

Embracer Group, the parent company of publishers Deep Silver and THQ Nordic, recently revealed that it has 69 unannounced titles in the works across its family of studios, with a total number of 118 games under development at present. 

Here are all the upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games that we know of. 

Vikki Blake
Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.