Dead Island 2 certainly hasn’t had the easiest track for development, and hopefully, eventual release.
Deep Silver started off the project without Techland, the minds behind Dead Island and Dying Light. Instead they moved ahead with YAGER, a development studio based in Berlin, Germany. The company has created titles YAGER, Spec Ops: The Line, and Dreadnought.
It appeared to be a pretty solid choice, until July of last year when Deep Silver and YAGER parted ways. Surprisingly, Deep Silver didn’t cite the typical ‘creative differences’. Instead, they said this “With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver has always been dedicated to delivering the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve. After careful consideration, today we announce the decision to part ways with development partner YAGER,” (source)
Sumo Digital has been announced as the latest developer for Dead Island 2, and Koch Media CEO has gone on record saying “It just made perfect sense for us to move the project to them.”
Sumo Digital has also worked on Disney Infinity, LittleBigPlanet, and Forza in the past.