Deep Silver has announced that they will no longer work with Yager to develop Dead Island 2 on July 14.
There aren’t very many details as to what caused the two companies to part ways, but Deep Silver did make a statement saying, “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.”
Not long after, Timo Ullmann, CEO of Yager, said in a statement, “The team worked with enthusiasm to take Dead Island 2 to a new level of quality. However, Yager and Deep Silver’s respective visions of the project fell out of alignment, which led to the decision that has been made.”
Many are speculating the reasons for the split, including Yager not producing the level of quality that Deep Silver expected and that Deep Silver is a difficult company to work with, but there hasn’t been any confirmation of either rumor.
CGM reached out to Yager and received the following statement in an email:
YAGER Group announces the termination of its joint project with Deep Silver. As of now YAGER is no longer responsible for the development of Dead Island 2.
Timo Ullmann, CEO of YAGER Group, elaborates: ”Our YAGER team is fully committed to the development of AAA quality titles. We work closely with international publishers and partners and have at the same time always remained an independent development studio. Our team is made of the best creative minds and tech specialists who all share a common identity. The team worked with enthusiasm to take Dead Island 2 to a new level of quality. However, YAGER and Deep Silver’s respective visions of the project fell out of alignment, which led to the decision that has been made.We’ll focus our current efforts on Dreadnought together with Six Foot and our publisher Grey Box as well as on new projects. More details will be disclosed soon. All I can reveal at this point is that gamescom will be awesome for Dreadnought.”
CGM did reach out to Deep Silver as well, but got no response.
The development of Dead Island 2 has been pretty rocky from the start, but this now raises question as to if the separation will delay the release date, which has already been pushed back from spring 2015 to a vague 2016 release without a specific date. There also is no say on if development will continue from where development with Yager last left off or if it will be scrapped and started from scratch.
What is known about Dead Island 2 is that the game was said to be set in California, and focus on four people who were immune to the zombie virus. It would feature “never before seen” handcrafted weapons, roleplay elements, and a “seamless” multiplayer experience.
Originally, Techland, who worked on the spinoff Riptide, was assigned to work on the game, but left to work on Dying Light. Yager was signed on to work with Deep Silver in 2012, and were able to showcase some unpolished footage at E3 2014.
With two different companies leaving Deep Silver, it does raise some questions as to what is going on. Personally, I would think that if two companies are leaving Deep Silver, then maybe they should consider working alone on the project.
What do you think caused the companies to split? Comment below to let me know.
To read the full statement from Deep Silver, read below:
With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver has always been dedicated to delivering the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve. 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.
