Back in 2014 during the PS4 reveal event, Sony showcased a trailer for Dead Island 2. Many (myself included) believed the game would release in its December 2014 release window. So much so that pre-orders even up for the game including incentives for buying it. Unfortunately, it never saw the light of day.
Fast forward to 2021 and Dead Island 2 is still missing in action. The game has since been passed over to multiple developers including Techland, and Sumo Digital. In 2019 it was then passed over to Homefront developers Dambuster Studios who have been working on the game since. A new report claims that Dead Island 2 development is actually going well. So much so that the game will skip last-gen hardware in favour of the new consoles.
READ MORE
What is Deathloop Explained in New Gameplay Trailer
Industry analyst MauroNL spotted a new job opening on the Dambuster Studio career page. The listing is looking for a Game Programmer role at the company who is prepared to work on a “sandbox AAA title for next-generation hardware”. Another job listing asks for a developer who can work on an “established AAA title for Next Gen Console and PC platforms.”
According to the analyst, Dead Island 2 is moving to release on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC only. Dambuster Studios is hiring for developers with knowledge on how to create games for the new hardware and experiment with DirectX 12 and DirectX Ray Tracing
“Experience with DXR and compute are a must, as you will be heavily involved in raising our visual bar on high-end platforms using the latest rendering technologies.” Dead Island 2 is being built using Unreal Engine 4. Dambuster took over development in August 2019.
This still does not confirm any sort of release date for Dead Island 2 yet. In addition, the so-called analyst and his information should be taken with a pinch of salt for now. There’s no proof that the job positions were strictly for Dead Island 2. It could simply be coincidental. However, we did see a playable build leak last year although it was reportedly a very early build of the game.
Dead Island 2 E3 2014 Trailer
Source: Twitter
