Earlier this week a rumor surfaced that Deep Silver was planning on handing over development of the all but confirmed Dead Island 2 to a new studio. The first game was developed by Techland, and while they certainly did an admirable job, Dead Island didn’t quite live up to the expectations set by its fantastic debut trailer. The game still sold remarkably well, shipping over 3 million units so far, but much of that undoubtedly came from all the buzz that trailer received. With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver could be taking the same approach Konami and Capcom use with their Silent Hill and Resident Evil franchises respectively, by giving the game to another studio. Head past the jump for more!

When asked about the rumor that SpecOps: The Line developer Yager could be the next to work on the series, Deep Silver development director Guido Eickmeyer told IGN “We are neither working with Yager on Dead Island 2 nor do we have any contractual agreement with Yager about any project at this point.”

“Yager and Deep Silver do have a very close relationship, based on personal and professional connections between the parties. There is a legitimate chance that we will – at some point – work together on a title – and I would not even exclude the possibility that this could be something within the Dead Island franchise. We have the greatest respect for this team, we absolutely love what we have seen so far from SpecOps – and we are constantly discussing potential opportunities. However, we have neither something in place or in discussion between the parties that would explain such a news, nor do we have Dead Island 2 in concept or production with external partners.” he added.

It’s still too early to tell what path Deep Silver is taking with their popular new IP. I only hope the sequel, which could end up being called “Dead World”, focuses more on giving us interesting characters and a more bug-free experience than its predecessor did.

Toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting