Techland open to developing Dead Island 2

The developer of the original Dead Island has said it would be happy to pick up developments duties on its stumbling sequel.

After creating the original game, Techland then went on to make the highly successful Dying Light for Warner Bros. Dead Island 2, by contrast, have had a torrid time of things. Having first been delayed to 2016, publisher Deep Silver its developer Yager was then dropped from the project, leading to a studio closure.

"I personally would love to go back to Dead Island because I really love that game," Techland producer Tymon Smektala told VideoGamer. "I don’t know if there is a developer [attached to Dead Island 2] at all.

"I love Dead Island and I think there is a place for both franchises to strive in the market. As long as someone would be able to find something that would make them different, that would draw a clear line, ‘Okay, here’s Dead Island, here’s Dying Light’, and I think that’s doable, then why not?"

Smektala also expressed regret at the fate suffered by Yager.

"When something like that happens in the game dev industry it’s always sad news. You’re never happy that some other developer failed, because it could have been us, basically,” he added.

"And another thing that added to the feeling of sadness and disappointment was the fact that Dead Island is our child. It’s a title that we imagined, we developed. We made this game and we still have a very strong connection to that IP.”