Dead Island 2 gets a fresh delay, but what’s one more after an eight year wait

You’ll have to wait an extra 12 weeks before you can catch some sun with the undead, as Dead Island 2 is delayed until April 2023.

Originally announced in 2014, Dead Island 2 is the long-awaited sequel to its 2011 predecessor. Dead Island is an open-world hack-and-slash adventure featuring hordes of the undead, popular titles like Left 4 Dead, and undoubtedly laying the groundwork for developer Techland’s future products, Dying Light and Dying light 2.

The sequel was slated to release in February 2023 – and what a great damn valentine it would have been. Development team Dambuster announced postponement (opens in new tab) via Twitter, stating that they needed more time: “to make sure we can launch a game that we are proud to launch”.

And honestly? It was probably a smart move.

Sometimes dead is better

By pushing the game back to April, Dambuster will hopefully save us from a world of bugs and groundbreaking glitches. At a time when games are often released in a chaotic state only to be patched and hotfixed years later – cough, Cyberpunk 2077 – you’d be forgiven for missing the good old days when games would always arrive in reliably playable, completed conditions.

Of course, this delay doesn’t necessarily mean the game will be ready when we get it – or even that we won’t see another delay on the eight-year-old initial announcement.

Dead Island 2 has gone through multiple problems in its longstanding struggle for survival. Initial developers Yager Entertainment were dropped from the project in 2015, only to be replaced by Sumo Digital, makers of the upcoming asymmetrical horror title, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Dambusters took over development of Dead Island 2 in 2019 and things have been going more or less smoothly ever since. However, with all the chopping and altering, it’s no wonder the game has been delayed so much.

According to the Twitter thread that followed the Dambusters announcement, fans aren’t discouraged by the extra time in the oven.

“Not a big surprise, but not a bad thing either,” one user notes. “I’ve been pre-ordering this game since 2014. I can wait a few more weeks to get the game you’ve been envisioning,” says another.

Some people (rightly so) feel a bit left out by the news, so Dambusters softens the blow by sharing some new gameplay content on December 6, which will be streamed on the official website, YouTube, and Twitch pages. We know it definitely exists, and the game already impressed audiences at Gamescom earlier this year.

At this point, there’s not much to do but grab the nearest blunt instrument, snuggle into your tomb, and wait for the time to come.