Dead Island 2 delayed until 2016

Zombie adventure Dead Island 2 has been pushed back to a 2016 release, with the development team citing the game's diverse content.

"We have always set ourselves a big goal for Dead Island 2: to create the sequel that takes Dead Island to the next level. A game that takes what our fans tell us they love about Dead Island - multiple different characters to play with, co-op, and turning a paradise setting into a zombie slaughter melee - and a game that adds a ton more content and combat options on top of that. And we wanted to have all of that that done for release in Spring 2015," the development team said in a statement via social media.

"We have been looking at the game long and hard, and we have decided we didn't reach that goal we set out to achieve quite yet. This is why we have decided to delay Dead Island 2 to 2016."

The game is being developed by Yager Development and will be published by Deep Silver. It was originally set to be developed by the original Dead Island studio, Techland, but they created Dying Light instead. Yager, the team that made Spec Ops: The Line, pitched for the project and got it.

"Right now we are focusing purely on development, and we will have more info to share at a later stage. We know that our fans will be disappointed by this news, but by giving Dead Island 2 more time we are confident that everyone will get a better game to play as a result," the statement promised.

The game was announced in June 2014 and was originally scheduled for release in spring 2015.