'Dead Island 2' release date news: Game launch tipped for this year despite lack of update

A "working" zombie from "Dead Island," whose sequel "Dead Island 2" still has no specific release date.Deep Silver

Despite Sumo Digital's silence about the progress in its production, "Dead Island 2" is still expected to see the light of day later this year.

In a shocking move by publisher Deep Silver, Sumo Digital took over the development of "Dead Island 2" from studio Yager Development, which was in turn shut down completely.

The change was officially announced only last March, although the separation of Deep Silver and Yager took place July last year. It is unclear if Sumo Digital immediately jumped right into the work.

"Dead Island 2" was supposed to be released in August 2015 but was pushed back to 2016 after Yager "didn't reach that goal we set out to achieve quite yet."

It remains to be seen if this switch will further delay "Dead Island 2," but since Deep Silver is confident of Sumo Digital's greater knowledge and understanding of the game, it might not take long to put together.

Although he addressed the big change in an interview with MCV UK back in March, Koch Media CEO Dr. Klemens Kundratitz did not discuss the effect of the behind-the-scenes shakeup on the release timing of "Dead Island 2."

"We will reveal more details at a later stage, but for now I'd like to say that we are obviously super excited about the progress that we are making with them," Kundratitz promised at that time.

The planned beta testing for "Dead Island 2" still stands, but there's no word regarding when this will take place. This suggests that the sequel might take a while to get here.

However, there are still six months to go before the year ends, which is plenty of time for Sumo Digital to complete "Dead Island 2" in time for a 2016 release.

For now, fans of the video game series can check out the newly-unveiled trailer for the "Dead Island Definitive Collection," which is now available.

Through this $39.99 collection, fans can experience "Dead Island Definitive Edition" and "Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition" on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.