Studio files for insolvency after losing Dead Island 2 project

The former developing studio for Dead Island 2 has filed for insolvency after being removed from the project earlier this month by publisher Deep Silver.

Yager Productions said the filing was directly attributable to losing the Dead Island 2 project, which Deep Silver pulled two weeks ago. The studio and the publisher's creative visions for the game "fell out of alignment," managing director Timo Ullmann said at the time.

"As a single-purpose company, Yager Productions GmbH was assigned to the development of the Deep Silver title Dead Island 2," Ullmann said in a statement today. "The insolvency filing is a direct result from the early termination of the project and helps protect our staff. In the course of the proceedings, we gain time to sort out the best options for reorganizing this entity."

The insolvency filing allows Yager Development, the larger firm, to contain the damage to just Yager Productions while protecting the remaining employees and continuing to pay them. Yager's other project is the flight combat simulator Dreadnought.

Deep Silver has not named a new developer for Dead Island 2. In April, Deep Silver announced it was delaying the game's launch to 2016. At E3 2014 Deep Silver had targeted a release this spring on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.