Techland gave us the original Dead Island, and while the game may have been rough around the edges, it was still a pretty great co-op action zombie game that escalated into becoming a full fledged franchise. However, the first true, proper numbered sequel to the game was announced earlier this year, and as it turned out, Techland weren’t the ones who are working on it. Instead, Yager, the studio behind the acclaimed Spec Ops: The Line, will be bringing it to us. Techland, meanwhile, is working away on Dying Light, which is another co-op zombie action game that they’ll be bringing to us alongside Warner Bros.
Speaking to Eurogamer, they recently explained why they aren’t working on Dead Island 2.
“Right from the start, the IP was Deep Silver’s,” Techland game designer Maciej Binkowski said. Deep Silver is the publisher of the games; their other big properties include Saint’s Row and Homefront.
“At that point we weren’t really in a position to negotiate,” he said, “so that was the best deal we could get. It’s like playing poker: you have to make a decision with the information you have now. If you play the game thinking that something might happen, you’re going to lose the game. At that point, that was the best decision we could do.”
That makes sense, and it is sort of sad that something that Techland so obviously believed in and invested a lot of time and effort in was ultimately taken away from them, but well, that’s how things go sometimes. And at least with Techland’s level of creativity, they are always just one step away from creating another big hit.