'Dead Island 2' Re-Reveal And Release Date Closer Than Expected, Says Insider

Dead Island 2, eh? Haven’t heard that name in years. Well, that’s a lie, actually - announced way back in 2014, it’s been stuck in development hell ever since, thanks to it being handed over to multiple studios, and although we’ve not really heard anything official since that initial reveal, there’s been plenty of insiders throwing their hats into the ring with their various offerings of knowledge. 

Lo and behold, that’s exactly what’s happening right now, too. As reported by ComicBook, Sacred Symbols podcast host Colin Moriarty has claimed that he has anonymous sources who have knowledge of Dead Island 2’s development, including when it’s going to release.

Take a look at that first reveal trailer for Dead Island 2 right here.

Reportedly, it’ll launch in September or October this year “at the soonest”, and if it does release then, it’s expected to be re-revealed this summer. You know, to remind people that it actually exists. I’m not gonna lie, if not for writing about these things, I’d probably have needed prompting on that myself, given how long it’s been, so it seems like a reasonable thing to do.

This isn’t the first insider we’ve heard say that Dead Island 2 will release this year. In February, prominent (and historically accurate) leaker Tom Henderson claimed that “the game is actually in a decent state”, and that “it could be announced pretty soon with some kind of gameplay trailer, with a release date expected to be somewhere in Q4 2022, possibly leading up to next year if there is any problems with the development cycle.”

Adding further substance to those reports (also in February) was Lars Wingefors, the CEO of Embracer Group (the parent company of the game’s publisher, Deep Silver). Reportedly, when asked during an earnings meeting whether or not the game would release by the end of the financial year March 2023, he said: “I can’t talk about Dead Island 2 because it’s not announced as such from the publisher. But we have just talked about ... we have one unannounced AAA title… that you think is Dead Island 2, so it’s hard for me to comment further on that, but I am excited about unannounced titles.”

So, whether or not these new claims from Moriarty are just attempts to ride on the wave already created by these other reports is another matter - we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. Which, after eight years, we should certainly be used to by now.