To say Dead Island 2’s growth was rocky might be an understatement. The action-RPG took 9 years from divulge to launch and went by means of a number of studios within the course of. Now, former Deep Silver head of communications Martin Wein has revealed a part of what occurred after the sequel was unveiled at Sony’s E3 2014 press convention. Mainly, the sport because it existed then “sucked,” he stated.
GamesIndustry.biz reviews that Wein opened up about Dead Island 2 at a Develop:Brighton panel when he was requested whether or not he might keep in mind a time when advertising or participant analysis assisted in sport growth. “I can really offer you an instance the place myself and the product crew triggered about an eight-year product delay,” stated Wein.
Now with GameFlex Consultants, Wein said that he and his crew “had been mightily proud” of Dead Island 2’s reveal trailer–seen above. The video sees a jogger going for a run on the beachfront earlier than turning right into a zombie himself. A few month after the trailer’s debut, Wein stated that “we had a serious milestone with the event studio that was in cost at the moment. And boy, that sport sucked.”
At the moment, Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager was engaged on Dead Island 2 earlier than being eliminated in 2015. Wein said that the sport again then “had nothing to do with what [made] the unique Dead Island […] actually enjoyable.” Wein added that they obtained “horrific suggestions” from a playtest, which the studio claimed it might deal with. However that did not occur, in accordance with Wein. This set off a sequence of delays for Dead Island 2, and finally the sport went by means of one other developer in Sumo Digital earlier than Dambuster Studios delivered the ultimate product.
“Generally you must make exhausting choices,” Wein stated. “As a result of we might have, at that time, put out a shit sport. It may need made some cash, however it might have killed the franchise.”
In 2019, Koch Media made an analogous argument for Dead Island 2’s lengthy growth being an excellent factor. The sequel lastly arrived in 2023 and offered over 3 million copies. For extra, try GameSpot’s Dead Island 2 overview.