14 February 2023 , 06:00
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Since its original reveal in 2014, Dead Island 2 has been delayed… A lot. Once again the date has been changed… to a week earlier!
That’s right, the game's developer: Dambuster Studios has just announced that, not only has Dead Island 2 gone gold, but that it'll be launching one week earlier than anticipated. So mark your calendars, folks! The new Dead Island 2 release date is April 21, 2023 on both last-gen and current-gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and PC.
The sequel to 2011’s Dead Island has had a rough time. It was announced at E3 2014 with a phenomenal trailer, then the game went quiet for years as it switched hands across different developers twice. There was very little shown up until the game’s re-reveal at Gamescom Opening Night Live in 2022.
Luckily, the devs are up for poking fun at Dead Island 2's troubled development; Dambuster posted the new date announcement on its @deadislandgame twitter account, with a trailer that showed off some comments on social media like “who wants to beat [sic] they delay it again” and “how many more times will y’all delay this game”.
Who do your voodoo?
I, like many others, fell for the first Dead Island's poignant CGI debut trailer; but the game itself felt like a mediocre Dead Rising knockoff. I learned my lesson though – never trust a trailer that doesn't show actual gameplay. That being said, I was won over by the Dead Island 2 which saw a tonal shift from sombre to self-aware goofiness. With Capcom's Dead Rising 5 dead and buried, we desperately need someone else to shuffle into the void it left behind, and hopefully Dead Island 2 is up to the task.
Why Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's six week delay is a good thing
The good news is, the team at Dambuster seems confident with their final product. For a game that could’ve been quietly cancelled about ten times within the last nine years, with barely anyone batting an eyelid, they’ve stuck with it and it's finally gone gold. Releasing one week earlier than planned is testament to that confidence.
Of course, Dambuster could be artfully avoiding a clash with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Thanks to a six-week delay, Respawn's title is now landing on April 28, 2023 – the same day that Dead Island 2 was set to launch. That release window is looking even more cramped with Bethesda's supernatural shooter Redfall coming in hot one week later, on May 2. Maybe Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was the straw that broke the camel's back.