• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dead Island 2 developer Yager dropped by Deep Silver

Somnia

Member
So basically Phantom Dust all over again, just not a cult favorite like it.

CGI trailer at Sony E3 show and then this.

Fucking CGI trailers man, did we ever see gameplay or was it all behind closed doors?
 
I wasn't liking the direction they were taking the sequel in anyway.

They stated they were going for a much more humorous, comical tone than the first game. That was pretty disappointing to me, because the depressing/hopeless tone of the first game was just perfect for this kind of game IMO. The first game was just so tense and fun because of it. If I wanted humor I'd go play Dead Rising.

The endless questing also sounded like a bummer.

I did think it was cool that they were setting Dead Island 2 right in my backyard in California though... So that's a shame if the game doesn't eventually see release.
 

Revengineer

Unconfirmed Member
I bet they pay Techland insane amounts of money and basically integrate most of Dying Light's innovations plus their own (I hope).
 

Chille

Member
So basically Phantom Dust all over again, just not a cult favorite like it.

CGI trailer at Sony E3 show and then this.

Fucking CGI trailers man, did we ever see gameplay or was it all behind closed doors?

I played it last year frame rate was so bad same with the mechanics, also the mode I played was some sort of kill as many zombies as possible which got boring fast. I got bored and ran out of bounds.
 

Tapejara

Member

Dead Island is probably Deep Silver's biggest franchise, which makes it so weird that they would have this much trouble putting out a new game. First you fire the original team, then the new developers. It comes off as quite indecisive. It's easy to imagine fans losing faith in the series when you can't even put a name behind the brand.

They've done well with Saints Row and Metro, and seem to be handling the new Homefront well, but it's so weird to me that they've managed to fuck up their biggest series pretty easily.

I bet they pay Techland insane amounts of money and basically integrate most of Dying Light's innovations plus their own (I hope).

Based on the link posted by sflufan, it seems like Techland isn't on the best of terms with Deep Silver. They're likely happy with their partnership with Warner Bros.
 

Buzzman

Banned
Guys, I know most of us here liked Spec Ops: The Line but I hope you realize that the writer came from 2K, not Yager.
So you shouldn't expect any kind of similar quality story from their other games.
 

AwShucks

Member
Bummer. I was hoping they might do something different like they did with Spec Ops. Although I believe the key people from Spec Ops The Line are gone anyways.
 
Guys, I know most of us here liked Spec Ops: The Line but I hope you realize that the writer came from 2K, not Yager.
So you shouldn't expect any kind of similar quality story from their other games.
There's more to the narrative than just the writer, like the creative leads and the narrative designers.

Edit: Looks like narrative designers were the writers and contracted through 2K.
 
Dead Island is probably Deep Silver's biggest franchise, which makes it so weird that they would have this much trouble putting out a new game. First you fire the original team, then the new developers. It comes off as quite indecisive. It's easy to imagine fans losing faith in the series when you can't even put a name behind the brand.

They've done well with Saints Row and Metro, and seem to be handling the new Homefront well, but it's so weird to me that they've managed to fuck up their biggest series pretty easily.



Based on the link posted by sflufan, it seems like Techland isn't on the best of terms with Deep Silver. They're likely happy with their partnership with Warner Bros.


I dont think indecisive but maybe a sign if strong management. They didn't like what they were paying for, and rather than coast on promises like Sega and Colonial marines, took action. This only happened because the game was not coming along, or there were some serious issues with yager as a company.
 

KissVibes

Banned
Which 3 are those ? As Dead Island 1 is excellent and Dead Island Riptide is decent but more of an expansion pack. I can only think of that moba type thing that was released.

Dead Island: Riptide
Dead Island: Epidemic
Escape Dead Island

All bad and low budget games. Deep Silver is clearly only interested in market saturation and keeping the budgets real fucking low.
 

Tapejara

Member
I dont think indecisive but maybe a sign if strong management. They didn't like what they were paying for, and rather than coast on promises like Sega and Colonial marines, took action. This only happened because the game was not coming along, or there were some serious issues with yager as a company.

Of course. As much as I love Yager this could be for the best - we won't actually know until Dead Island 2 releases.
 

SephLuis

Member
There was significant gameplay footage out of E3 last year, and previously they made Spec Ops: The Line which, while in a completely different genre, is very highly regarded as a twist in the third person shooter field.

Weird. I thought this was a case of vaporware, but instead it seems they had a product in hand and suffered the cancelation. Unless the game was trash, no reason to cancel it.

I played Spec Ops and really liked it. Didn't know the dev was Yager
 
This is what happens when you put all of your resources as a developer into making new f2p games instead of making the game you have been tasked with.
 
That's what they get for thinking they could just replace the original devs.

I bet Deep Silver looked at Dying Light then at their game and knew it didn't measure up. I like Deep Silver for the risks they take but I don't like Pubs thinking they know development better than developers.
 

Mohonky

Member
Deep Silver really bet on the wrong horse for this title. I loved Dead Island, but Dying Light was the best natural progression for the title with its free movement system, just traversing the environment was fun.

After that they probably thought oh......that was a good idea afterall.
 

Mr. Tibbs

Member
Has there ever been a case where a publisher has dropped a team mid-development and delivered a great game? I'm not talking about rebooting a project and just keeping the name, or carrying over members of the original team to a new studio, but the original pitch for the game switching developers and that not negatively affecting the end quality of the game.
 

Tapejara

Member
Has there ever been a case where a publisher has dropped a team mid-development and delivered a great game? I'm not talking about rebooting a project and just keeping the name, or carrying over members of the original team to a new studio, but the original pitch for the game switching developers and that not negatively affecting the end quality of the game.

Metal Gear Rising.
 

Sethista

Member
But they made spec ops the line, man.... spec ops, the line....

Is like Michael jackson, yeah he probably did it, and he hasnt produced anything worthy of note since te early 90s, but... thriller man, he made thriller....

I love the chappele show
 

Tainted

Member
I had a feeling Dead Island 2 would either be cancelled or Deep Silver would concentrate on Dying Light 2 after the success of the first game.

Feel sorry for Yager though, that pre-alpha footage looked solid and I was looking forward to a new Dead Island game
 

Tapejara

Member
Fantastic game, but wasn't that a reboot, hence the subtitle Revengeance? Didn't Platinum essentially start from scratch when they took over the project?

Perhaps, I'm not too familiar with its history. I know the story was changed, but I'm not sure about the gameplay.
 

antitrop

Member
I had a feeling Dead Island 2 would either be cancelled or Deep Silver would concentrate on Dying Light 2 after the success of the first game.

Feel sorry for Yager though, that pre-alpha footage looked solid and I was looking forward to a new Dead Island game

Dying Light was published by Warner Bros.
 
Regardless of your opinion on Spec Ops, it got delayed to hell and back multiple times. I would imagine, given their track record now, this is probably it for getting a AAA deal from a big publisher.
 
Honestly not that surprised...I mean, I know it's fucked up, but outside the writing, Spec Ops: The Line was the epitome of mediocre and I was always skeptical about this.

hope they land on their feet though.
 
Let's not forget Spec Ops took like three years after it was announced to actually come out, too.

It's always sad when someone loses their job and I wish no ill will on them, but it's entirely possible Yager is not the best at project management.
 

flyshow

Member
Guess Dying Light really raised the bar and Yager failed to catch up. Or Deep Silver realized they visioned Dead Island 2 the wrong way and felt baffled with the game's future direction after seeing how good Dying Light turned out to be.

Anyway, Dying Light is fantastic. From a developer's perspective, Techland did a wonder with Dying Light. They shipped their next-gen debut title with modern rendering techs, open world AI planner, solid parkour system, amazing night gameplay, way better storytelling than the original Dead Island. They even released a full-fledged editor, and all of these are under a very effective development cycle.

Sorry for Yager and shame for Deep Silver.
 
Seems like deep silver fucked up ^^

Techland are great developers: dead island was fun and had a great atmosphere once you got off the beach (the game that convinced me that first person melee combat can be entertaining) , dying light was great and switched up the formula enough to make it feel fresh gameplay wise AND it was technically very impressive, call of juarez gunslinger was fun.

Now they don't have a developer to continue their dead island IP while everyone who cared about dead island is already aware of dying light continuing the dead island gameplay.

Still don't get why deep silver sacked techland.
 
This is the same Deep Silver that decided to not work with the former Ascaron devs for Sacred 3 and put Keen Games on that project instead?

Yeah, can't say I have much confidence on dev Deep Silver

I had high hope for Sacred 3 and now the series is dead. What a terrible company. And now this?!
 

Faenix1

Member
For me, Dead Island 2 was nothing I wanted in a sequel. This is, to me, no big loss.

Watch they retool it to be more akin to Dying Light. lol

Yeah, and now the Dead Island 1 devs aren't working on the franchise anymore either. What's your point?

In a way they are, Dying Light is a much better Dead Island. Though Dead Island has the better setting.

Imagine Dying Light but in Dead Islands setting? Droolfest
 
Top Bottom