Dead Island 2 will be an Epic Store exclusive, and possibly the next Saints Row
Dead Island 2 and a Saints Row game will launch as Epic Games Store exclusives, according to the Epic Games Store ‘Review of Performance and Strategy’ document from October 2019, made public during the course of the Epic Vs. Apple trial. It’s the same document that reveals Epic has spent at least $1 billion on launch exclusives for its storefront.
Crucially, this document is from late 2019, so there are a few things to keep in mind. First, the Saints Row exclusive launch could very well have already happened: Saints Row 3: Remastered launched on Epic Games Store on May 22 last year, and is coming to Steam on May 22 this year. It’s no secret that Saints Row 5 is going to happen, but whether that’s the Saints Row title referenced in Epic’s document is anyone’s guess. In 2019 Koch Media CEO Klemens Kundratitz confirmed Saints Row 5, promising to “talk about it next year” (that never happened, though maybe we can blame Covid-19).
Far less ambiguous is Dead Island 2, which is clearly marked as an Epic Games Store exclusive in the document. That’s if it ever happens: initially announced in 2014, the project has shifted between several studios including Techland, Yager and Sumo Digital—at the moment it’s still officially under development at Dambuster Studios.
Kundratitz also confirmed in the same 2019 interview that Dead Island 2 is still happening, though publisher and studio alike remained silent about the project throughout 2020. We did get this lengthy video of an early version of the game when it was still in the care of Yager. Whatever the case, if it ever releases, it’ll be an Epic exclusive.