Will Dead Island 2 ever actually happen?
That is a question gamers have asked for the past three years. Although the title was originally announced way back in 2014 at that year's E3 and even has a trailer, it's already seen a host of problems, including a change in developers. Now, the game's Steam page has disappeared, sparking rumors that the Dead Island sequel is no more.
NeoGAF user DeathSparks initially spotted the removal of the Dead Island 2 page from the website.
"About an hour ago the Dead Island 2 Steam page was seemingly removed from steam," DeathSparks wrote. "It wouldn't surprise me if it turns out the game is being cancelled. Between Yager dropping out and handing the development Sumo Digital it seems like Deep Silver is most likely abandoning the project."
Deep Silver is the publisher of Dead Island 2, with Yager being the title's original developer. Deep Silver later announced that Sumo Digital would pick up the reigns on the game, but there hasn't been much talk about it since then.
Earlier this year, Dead Island 2 appeared on the Australian Ratings Board, suggesting it was a very real thing as Dead Island Retro Revenge. It received an "M" rating for bloody violence. However, there's no guarantee that this is the intended sequel of the original zombie-slaying action adventure Dead Island.
So is Dead Island 2 officially dead? It's likely, but there is another possible explanation: a delay. Delays have become very common with big video game titles these days, so the disappearance of the Steam page might not mean the end of the franchise, but just that fans will need to wait a little longer for it.
Many users on the NeoGAF forums believe that this could signal a delay, and even a potential new direction for the video game franchise. The disappearing Steam page could mean that there's a complete reboot of the project in the works, suggesting that Sumo Digital decided to start all over from scratch, even after Yager put in nearly three years of development work on the game. There are a lot of possibilities that don't necessarily mean that Dead Island 2 may never happen.
