Sumo Digital takes charge of Dead Island 2

UK studio Sumo Digital has been handed the task of developing Deep Silver’s Dead Island 2, MCV can reveal.

The horror shooter was first announced at E3 2014 during PlayStation’s press conference, and was being developed by Spec Ops: The Line creators Yager.

However, publisher Deep Silver terminated its relationship with the studio in July 2015 because it ‘wanted to make no compromises’ with the franchise. Yager Productions has since filed for insolvency.

Sumo showed so much understanding of the brand, had creative ideas and an excellent, vision that was aligned with our own,” Koch Media CEO Dr Klemens Kundratitz told MCV.

It just made perfect sense for us to move the project to them. We will reveal more details at a later stage, but for now I’d like to say that we are obviously super excited about the progress that we are making with them.”

Sumo Digital has previously handled triple-A IP including Disney Infinity, LittleBigPlanet and Forza. The studio is also working on Microsoft’s new Crackdown game.

It’s an honour to be charged with the evolution of such an important franchise in Deep Silver’s catalogue,” said Sumo COO Paul Porter. We’re looking forward to exceeding fan expectation with an ambitious design that we’re confident will take bone-crunching, visceral, zombie action to a whole new level.”

This is Deep Silver’s second investment in UK development. Its upcoming shooter Homefront: The Revolution is being created at Nottingham-based Dambuster, which it owns.