Dambuster Studio has teased that they’re working on Dead Island 3, a sequel to their hit series revival with Dead Island 2.
Writing in a note that celebrates 14 years since the first Dead Island game was released by original developer Techland, the studio also noted that over 20 million people have played Dead Island 2 since its release in 2023, before closing out that “the details stay under wraps, the outbreak is far from over…”
It looks like Jacob is set to return for the next game, traipsing down a dusty road out of LA, and this could be giving us some clues as to where the next game will be set. The look of the road would suggest that he’s heading toward the desert inland, possibly towards Las Vegas, most likely, but could we be jet setting off to another country? The stickers on his luggage mention Banoi, the island where this series started, and LA, but there’s also stickers for Australia, Ireland and the Coliseum. Obviously these would logically be places where he’s visited in the past, but teasers don’t always have to make too much sense.
Dead Island 2’s success is great to see, given the difficulties that the game went through in getting made. Techland had a messy breakup with publisher Deep Silver (now Plaion) and went off to make their Dying Light series, while the Dead Island franchise stuck with the publisher. They initially partnered with Yager (Spec Ops: The Line), but after the game’s announcement at E3 2014, development didn’t progress as planned, and the game was taken away and given to Nottingham-based Dambuster Studios, the team previously behind Homefront: The Revolution, but with a longer lineage back through to the TimeSplitters franchise.
The game is a solid return for the zombie smashing series, as I wrote in our Dead Island 2 review, “Dead Island 2 does a great job of reanimating this dormant zombie-battling series, with the gore-filled combat and excessive weaponry that goes well with the oversaturated LA setting. It’s an enjoyable romp, but at the same time, ironically feels like it’s playing it safe.”
Source: Steam
