Dead Island 2 loses developer Yager as publisher Deep Silver moves on

Last we heard of Dead Island 2, the zombie sequel was pushed back to a 2016 release date and no-showed at this year's E3. Now we might have a good idea of why the game has disappeared, as publisher Deep Silver has announced that it has parted ways with developer Yager.

A representative from Deep Silver shared the following statement:

With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver has always been dedicated to delivering the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve. After careful consideration, today we announce the decision to part ways with development partner Yager.

No further information on why this decision was made or what it means for Dead Island 2's release was offered. Elsewhere in the email, Deep Silver promises to "continue working towards bringing our vision of Dead Island 2 to life."

"We will share further information at a later stage," the email concludes.

The original Dead Island and its follow-up, Dead Island: Riptide, were created by Polish developer Techland. That developer went on to work with Warner Bros. on a similar zombie-based game called Dying Light, while Deep Silver announced Yager would take over the Dead Island franchise with its sequel.

The most recent Dead Island release was last year's Escape Dead Island, a notoriously bad survival horror/adventure game hybrid. Yager, meanwhile, is also working on a flight combat game called Dreadnought.

You can check out the first gameplay footage reveal of Yager's initial vision for Dead Island 2 below, though it's unclear how much the final game will still resemble this.