First unveiled in 2013, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Dead Island 2 had been taken out the back and quietly strangled. Originally in development by Spec Ops: The Line studio Yager, Sumo Digital announced in March last year that it had taken the project over. Since then we've heard nothing.
But following a bit of online consternation regarding its status, Eurogamer reached out to Deep Silver for an update. It turns out the game is still in development, and that the publisher is "excited by the progress the team are making with Deep Silver's most successful IP".
To be honest I'm surprised it's still in development, though a "successful IP" is hardly something a publisher is going to allow to lay dormant. The studio responsible for the original Dead Island went on to make Dying Light – a very good, parkour-oriented take on zombie slaughtering – and as far as I can tell, there's not a huge amount of buzz around a Dead Island sequel anymore. Fingers crossed it's good, though.
To refresh your memory, here's how it looked back in 2014:
