Losing Dead Island 2 project was a "catastrophic blow," says former dev

Cancelling an in-development game is not an easy decision, especially if the studio spent three years working on it.

Dead Island 2 was in development for three years before publisher Deep Silver ended its relationship with developer Yager.

Yager said at the time that the publisher's vision "fell out of alignment" with that of the studio's. This resulted in Yager shutting down one sub-division and letting go of all staff.

The studio's managing director Timo Ullmann opened up to GamesIndustry about how this move affected the studio. "Having a project cancelled in such a late state is a catastrophic event on so many different levels," he said.

"It really is the worst possible outcome. Everybody involved loses."

Ullmann added that, despite what many thought, Yager Development is still standing, with only the Productions division shut down. "When you say something people take their own meaning. You can only try.

"Internally, we informed our staff about what was going to happen prior to that, and that's also something that we usually do: clear communication about what's going to happen and why it is happening."

Yager is working on a space ship combat game called Dreadnought. Dead Island 2's fate remains unknown.