It has been confirmed that Dead Island 3, the follow-up to Dead Island and Dead Island 2, is in active development. Fans, however, will likely have to wait several years before it is released.
Earlier this year, developers at Dambuster Studios released a teaser hinting at Dead Island 3 on Steam. The post also served as a celebration of Dead Island 2 surpassing 20 million players. In the message, published last September, the studio said it was “already carving out what comes next,” while noting that details would remain under wraps and that “the outbreak is far from over.” Recent financial statements from the developer suggest that Dambuster Studios is following through on that promise, confirming that work on the next entry in the franchise is underway.
Found by VGC (and by extension, an X user @bogorad222), Dambuster’s financial statements reveal that not only is Dead Island 3 in active development, but the company has forecasted “The current predicted release window for the project is Q1/2 2028.” Which means by the time of release, it will have been nearly 20 years since the original landed on consoles. CGMagazine’s review of Dead Island 2 says, “not only manages to live up to the expectations set by its two mainline prequels over a decade ago–it blows them right out of the water.” Hopefully, Dambuster can exceed fan expectations once again without the messy development cycle this time around.
Dambuster Studios states plainly in the documents: “After the release of Dead Island 2 Ultimate Edition in October 2024, the primary focus for Dambuster Studios is now Dead Island 3. All developers are assigned to the project, and once the Luna and Mac versions of Dead Island 2 are complete, all of Dambuster’s QA team will also be assigned to Dead Island 3. Parts of the game are now in early production, with feature, character, world and story design moving at pace.”
Dead Island 3 is currently forecast to launch in the first or second quarter of 2028, which is a lengthy wait for fans. That timeline could shift forward with an official announcement from Dambuster, but it should be treated cautiously. Development schedules can also move back, as fans saw with the second instalment in the series.
