The journey of Dead Island 2 from announcement to launch was undeniably tumultuous, spanning an arduous nine years and involving multiple development studios. Martin Wein, former head of communications at Deep Silver, recently shed light on the initial challenges the action-RPG faced after its grand unveiling at Sony`s E3 2014 press conference. According to Wein, the game as it existed back then was, quite simply, “terrible.”
GamesIndustry.biz reported on Wein`s candid revelations during a Develop:Brighton panel. When asked if he could recall instances where marketing or player research significantly impacted game development, Wein offered a striking example:
“I can actually give you an example where myself and the product team caused about an eight-year product delay.”
Wein, now working with GameFlex Consultants, expressed that he and his team were immensely proud of Dead Island 2`s reveal trailer, which depicted a jogger on a sun-drenched beachfront turning into a zombie. However, a mere month after this impressive debut, a major development milestone exposed serious flaws. Wein described the moment of truth, stating, “we had a major milestone with the development studio that was in charge at that time. And boy, that game sucked.”
At that point, Yager, the studio behind Spec Ops: The Line, was developing Dead Island 2, before being replaced in 2015. Wein criticized this early iteration, asserting that it “had nothing to do with what made the original Dead Island really fun.” He further elaborated on the “horrific feedback” received from playtests, which the studio allegedly promised to address but failed to deliver upon. This critical misstep initiated a cascade of delays for Dead Island 2, leading the project to eventually transfer to Sumo Digital, and finally, Dambuster Studios, who successfully delivered the finished product.
Wein underscored the difficult decisions that had to be made during this period, explaining:
“Sometimes you have to make hard decisions. Because we could have, at that point, put out a shit game. It might have made some money, but it would have killed the franchise.”
This perspective aligns with a similar argument made by Koch Media in 2019, suggesting that Dead Island 2`s prolonged development ultimately served the franchise`s best interests. The highly anticipated sequel finally arrived in 2023, achieving considerable success by selling over 3 million copies.
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