It looks like work on Dead Island 3 is underway after a tease was published to celebrate the series’ 14th anniversary.
In a post on Steam, developer Dambuster Studios posted the image, below, alongside the caption: “and the next outbreak is already brewing.”
“It’s been 14 years since Dead Island first splattered onto the scene, stranding players in the blood-soaked paradise of Banoi,” the message continued.
“Since then, the zompocalypse has crawled from tropical shores to the sun-drenched chaos of HELL-A in Dead Island 2, where over 20 million Slayers have left nothing but carnage behind.
“This isn’t the final cut though. Dambuster Studios are already carving out what comes next. For now, the details stay under wraps, the outbreak is far from over…”
Based on the image, we can safely say Dead Island 3 will be set somewhere other than LA, which stands to reason. But where? Given the person shown in the image is hitching a ride, perhaps Vegas is a natural stopping off point. But really, it could be anywhere. After all, the first Dead Island was set on a fictional island chain in Oceania.
Or maybe this is just about Dead Island 2 DLC, which would come as quite the surprise given the game’s two story expansions, Haus and SoLA, have been released.
The hope, of course, is that Dead Island 3 won’t take quite as long as Dead Island 2 did to come out. The Dead Island 2 that eventually launched (and enjoyed huge success) suffered a whopping eight-year delay after long stretches of development hell.
In July, Martin Wein, former head of communications at Dead Island 2 publisher Deep Silver, talked candidly about the sequel’s troubled development, and how it was decided at a major milestone meeting with then-developer Yager that the game as it was then “sucked.”
Dead Island 2 was revealed at E3 2014 but soon went quiet before “mutual differences” separated Yager from Deep Silver. It was then moved to Sumo Digital before being shifted again in 2019 to its final home of Dambuster Studios. A new trailer and gameplay video was released on December 6, 2022, during a Dead Island 2 showcase that announced it was delayed once again, slipping 12 weeks to April 2023.
The question is, when will Dead Island 3 be revealed, and when will it come out? Given it’s been over two years since the release of Dead Island 2, hopefully we’ll see something tangible sooner rather than later.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
