A few months ago, developer Dambuster Studios and publisher Deep Silver practically confirmed the existence of Dead Island 3 as they celebrated the second installment reaching 20 million players (including those who played through subscription services and even those who grabbed it for free from the Epic Games Store MEGA Sale earlier this year).
Now, though, Internet spotter extraordinarie Timur222 has uncovered from Dambuster's financial statements that the UK studio is targeting Q1 or Q2 2028 as the launch window for Dead Island 3. Here's the full quote:
Dambuster Studios is a AAA video game developer based in Nottingham which has 194 employees (as of March 2025). 93% are working in development and the remaining staff are studio management and administrative support. After the release of Dead Island 2 Ultimate Edition in October 2024, the primary focus for Dambuster Studios is now Dead Island 3. All developers are assigned to the project, and once the Luna and Mac versions of Dead Island 2 are complete, all of Dambuster's QA team will also be assigned to Dead Island 3. Parts of the game are now in early production with feature, character, world, and story design moving at pace. The current predicted release window for the project is Q1/2 2028.
Dead Island 2 launched on April 21, 2023, which means that Dead Island 3 will be out in less than five years, provided there are no delays on the schedule.
Dead Island 2 took a long time to be released. It was first in development by Yager, which showcased the game with a playable demo at Gamescom 2014. However, publisher Deep Silver was not satisfied with the developers' direction for the project and removed Yager from it. In March 2016, they announced that Sumo Digital would make the game. Three and a half years later, the game was reassigned to Dambuster Studios, an internal Deep Silver studio.
With so many developer changes, there was widespread skepticism about the final game's quality, but Dambuster provided a fun experience that resonated with fans, convincing Deep Silver to assign Dead Island 3 as the studio's next project.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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