THQ Nordic has put the development of Dead Island 2 in the hands of Dambuster Studios, who most recently worked on Homefront: the Revolution. Back in 2014, Dead Island 2 was revealed via Sony’s E3 press conference. Since then the game has had an incredibly rocky development cycle, between moving back and forth between three development studios and delay after delay. Sumo Digital was the last studio to have their hands on the project, but things obviously didn’t work out.

Dead Island 2’s initial reveal trailer was more comical than the first game’s reveal trailer that set the gaming world on fire in 2011. Unfortunately, the game launched on more of a whimper to mixed reviews. It’s unclear if Dead Island 2 is sticking with that more comedic direction, as the state of the game has likely changed multiple times since its initial reveal trailer. The original team that worked on the first Dead Island as well as the standalone expansion Dead Island: Riptide, Techland, has since moved on to the more well-received Dying Light series, which has a sequel set to launch later this year.

In an investment report from THQ Nordic, the company revealed that the title is still in the works but it’s shifting developers once again, this time to Dambuster Studios. THQ Nordic owns Koch Media, the parent company of Dead Island 2 publisher Deep Silver. With this change in direction, it seems like a release date for Dead Island 2 could still be a ways off.

Some gameplay of Dead Island 2 did appear in 2014 at Gamescom, and while the game looked solid on the visual end, it seemed to be a technical mess that was still far off from completion. The original Homefront was a relatively well-received standard first-person shooter with a multiplayer community that eventually died off. The sequel Homefront: the Revolution received poor reviews across the board after opting for a more open-world style game that was poorly put together when compared to other shooter titles on the market.

With all that in mind, things aren’t looking good for Dead Island 2. Typically, titles that experience long and strenuous development cycles don’t always turn out the best. Aliens: Colonial Marines and Duke Nukem Forever are good examples of products that were stuck in development hell for many years. Of course, there are always outliers with anything, but given that Dead Island 2 has jumped between three developers and is in its fifth year without a concrete release date or window, it’s hard to imagine that the game will be anything more than decent.

Next: Dying Light 2 Interview: Lead Game Designer Tymon Smektala

Source: THQ Nordic