Dead Island 2 and Saints Row 5 are still in the works

(Image credit: Deep Silver)

Techland, creators of the original Dead Island, were planning a sequel when they shifted focus to work on Dying Light instead. Dead Island 2 passed to Yager Developments, and then Sumo Digital, and then Dambuster Studios, and here we are at the end of 2019 with no sign of it.

In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Klemens Kundratitz (CEO of Koch Media, who own Deep Silver Publishing and are in turn part of THQ Nordic) explained that it's definitely coming. "Look, Dead Island is a very important brand for us and we've got to get it right. It's just a testimony of our dedication to get it right", he said.

"It's a great story to tell everyone that it's on its third studio, but we like to be judged on the end result and we're really confident that when it comes out it's going to be a kick-ass zombie game. We'll certainly give it all our power."

Kundratitz also confirmed that Volition, another studio they own, are still working on a new Saints Row game rather than a sequel to its spin-off Agents of Mayhem. "Saints Row is very close to our hearts," he said, "and we'll talk about it next year. For the time being, we just wanted to get the word out that it's coming and it's going to be great."

Koch Media's next big release will be Shenmue 3, which is due out this week.

Thanks, Gamesindustry.biz.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.