Yager's segmented Dead Island 2 team files for insolvency
"A direct result from the early termination of the project."
On 14th July it was announced that German developer Yager would no longer be working on Dead Island 2. On 22nd July Yager Productions - a sub-division created to make Dead Island 2 - filed for insolvency.
The news was announced in a press release today along with reassurance that, "All other branches of the Yager Group remain unaffected with their projects continuing as planned." Affected employees wages for the upcoming months are "secured".
Yager managing director Timo Ullmann said: "As single-purpose company, Yager Productions was assigned to the development of the Deep Silver title Dead Island 2. The insolvency filing is a direct result from the early termination of the project and helps protecting our staff. In the course of the proceedings, we gain time to sort out the best options for reorganising this entity.
"Insolvency proceedings solely affect Yager Productions. All other parts of Yager Group are independent and remain unaffected. In addition to titles that are already in production, Yager has a team working on new gaming concepts which also remained intact."
Besides Dead Island 2, Yager was - and still is - working on free-to-play spaceship war game Dreadnought. From the FAQ: "The game puts players at the helm of enormous spacecraft inspired by iconic science fiction movies and television shows. Players will assume the role of a starship captain and customise their ships to guarantee dominance/success as they soar the skies battling opposing spacecraft."
Yager and Deep Silver parted ways because their "respective visions of the project fell out of alignment", said Ullman earlier in the month. Pity, as Yager developing had been a major plus-point for the game - Spec Ops: The Line was a "memorable and strange" take on an army war game.
What we'd seen of Dead Island 2 showed it as colourful and crazy - an eight-player multiplayer zombie riot in sunny LA. I played it at EGX 2014 and recorded an obscene amount of kills (to win my multiplayer round) because I found an endless supply of zombies in a line. It was fun! That was September 2014, and the game was due spring 2015, but in April it was delayed all the way back to 2016, suggesting major problems were afoot. And, evidently, they were.
Where Dead Island 2 goes from here we don't know. Remember, series creator Techland went on to very successfully launch Dying Light after parting ways with Deep Silver. No new Dead Island 2 developer has been named but I hope to find out more at Gamescom next week.
