A former head of communications at Dead Island 2 publisher Deep Silver has opened up about the “eight-year product delay” Dead Island 2 endured after early playtests reported “horrific feedback.”

At the end of a Develop:Brighton talk as reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Martin Wein — now at GameFlex Consultants — talked candidly about the sequel’s troubled development, and how it was decided at a major milestone meeting with then-developer, Yager, that the game as it was then “sucked.”

Dead Island 2 was revealed at E3 2014 but soon went quiet before “mutual differences” separated Yager from Deep Silver. It was then moved to Sumo Digital before being shifted again in 2019 to its final home of Dambuster Studios. A new trailer and gameplay video was released on December 6, 2022, during a Dead Island 2 Showcase that announced it was delayed once again, slipping 12 weeks to April 2023. It was the first proper look at the game fans had since it was re-revealed after years of troubled development in August 2022.

“I was working on that with the creative team, and we were mightily proud of that [trailer],” Wein said. “But then, about three to four weeks later, we had a major milestone with the development studio that was in charge at that time. And boy, that game sucked.

“It had nothing to do with what [made] the original Dead Island […] really fun. So we commissioned a play test and got horrific feedback. And we sat down with the development team and said, ‘Okay, what’s the course of action?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, leave it with us.'”

But at the next touch-point, Wein said little had changed, with playtest feedback indicating the sequel was “not fun, not engaging, [and] does not feel like the Dead Island that I played.”

“So at the end of the day, we had to take the game away from that external developer, find a new studio, and that put the game on a journey of… well, it was supposed to launch in 2015. When did it come out? 2023?

“Sometimes you have to make hard decisions,” Wein added. “Because we could have, at that point, put out a sh*t game. It might have made some money, but it would have killed the franchise.

“I cannot really speak to the conversation between the production team and the development partner as I was not part of those, but as the developer wanted to pursue their vision rather than follow player feedback, the ultimate decision was made to part ways.”

When it did finally release in 2023, IGN’s Dead Island 2’s review returned a 7/10. We said: “Dead Island 2 is a hilarious gore-fest and a competent zombie-slaying adventure, but lacks creativity outside of its great sense of humor.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 updates continue with patch 01.003.200, which makes a big balance change and a number of fixes.

According to patch notes released by the developer, 01.003.200 reduces the time it takes for the Helldiver to regain control after ragdolling from 0.8 to 0.5 seconds.

This seemingly innocuous change will have big implications for how Helldivers 2 feels to play. It’s a game that leans heavily on its physics systems and the emergent gameplay that comes from them, and that includes being blasted around the map.

As any Helldivers 2 player will know, you spend a lot of time prone on the floor recovering after being smashed into a ragdolling status. There’s a panic that sets in as you slowly pick yourself up and dust yourself off while the forces of the Illuminate, the Automatons, and the Terminids continue their assault. Those precious few milliseconds may make all the difference, especially on harder difficulties.

Meanwhile, the flag can now be “proudly” planted directly into enemies — dead or alive — “ensuring the eternal colors of Super Earth are never tainted, only quenched by the blood of its foes.” So, if you want that Charger to be running around with your flag on its back, now you can make it happen.

There are a number of balance changes worth checking out in the patch notes below.

Things are hotting up in the world of Helldivers 2, with the PC and PS5 game set to become the first PlayStation Studios-published title ever on Xbox when it launches on Series X and S next month alongside crossplay.

Helldivers 2 update 01.003.200 patch notes:

🌍 Overview

• Balancing
• Mission Fixes
• Weapon Fixes
• Miscellaneous Fixes

⚖️ Balancing

General

Helldiver

• Reduced the time it takes for the Helldiver to regain control after ragdolling from 0.8 to 0.5 sec
• Increased chest injury bleed damage from 1 to 10. Chest injuries now cause more noticeable damage, as the previous value of 1 was so low it appeared to have no effect

CQC-1 One True Flag

• Thanks to some groundbreaking military research into pointier flag tips, the flag can now be proudly planted directly into enemies—dead or alive—ensuring the eternal colors of Super Earth are never tainted, only quenched by the blood of its foes. Absolute Democracy

Primary weapons

AR-32 Pacifier

• Stun duration increased from 1.5 to 3 sec
• Starting magazines increased from 5 to 6
• Max amount of magazines increased from 7 to 8
• Slight increase in stun value applied to enemies

SMG-72 Pummeler

• Stun duration increased from 1.5 to 3 sec
• Slight increase in stun value applied to enemies

ARC-12 Blitzer

• Slight increase in stun value applied to enemies

R-2124 Constitution

• Bayonet stagger strength increased from 20 to 25

R-2 Amendment

• Bayonet stagger strength increased from 20 to 25

Sidearms

P-92 Warrant

• Now also locks-on to Large sized enemies

Throwables

G-109 Urchin

• Stagger strength increased from 0 to 50
• It now staggers and affects Large sized enemies

G-10 Incendiary

• The amount of fuel has been increased in the grenade, resulting in longer-lasting fire duration

G-13 Incendiary impact

• The amount of fuel has been increased in the grenade, resulting in a longer-lasting fire duration

Stratagems

A/FLAM-40 Flame sentry

• Fire damage resistance increased from 0 to 95%
• Cooldown reduced from 150 to 100 sec

GL-52 De-Escalator

• Slight increase in stun value applied to enemies

Boosters

Firebomb Hellpod

• Now affects the Hellpods default explosion as well
• Stagger strength decreased from 80 to 15 to prevent ragdolling players
• Demolition strength decreased from 40 to 20 because we now correctly also additively apply the normal Hellpod explosion

Stun Pods

• Now affects the Hellpods default explosion as well
• Stagger strength decreased from 80 to 15 to prevent ragdolling players
• Demolition strength decreased from 40 to 20 because we now correctly also additively apply the normal Hellpod explosion

Enemies

General

• It’s now easier to put Large to Massive sized enemies on fire

Terminids

Warrior

• Damage needed to gib Warriors increased from 500 to 750 damage
• This is how much damage is needed to explode the body without leaving a corpse behind

Automatons

Scout strider

• Legs armor decreased from 3 to 2
• Legs durable resistance has been increased

Illuminates

Overseer variants

• Unarmored Torso healthzone armor decreased from 2 to 1

🔧 Fixes

Weapons Stratagems & Boosters

• Fixed an issue with the R-2124 Constitution playing audio during the wrong instances
• Fixed an issue with the draw and holster speed with the Gunslinger Armor Passive
• Fixed an issue with ranged weapon grips after dropping the Entrenchment Tool

Enemies

• Fixed an issue where status effect damage were attempting to apply more times than intended

Missions

• Fixed an issue that prevented stratagems from working correctly on Terminate Illegal Broadcast objectives
• Fixed an issue with bad enemy pathing on military uplink objectives
• Fixed an issue for the terminal and drop off point, where they became inaccessible during the Retrieve Recon Craft Intel objective

Miscellaneous Fixes

• Fixed an issue in first person view where some armors resulted in visible obstructions around the shoulder while using a high Field Of View
• Fixed an issue during map generation that could result in missing terrain features
• Fixed fall animations occasionally playing before victory poses
• Extended some fonts to handle Bengali characters in player names
• Fixed an error that caused some enemy models to appear in lower quality
• Fixed an issue to prevent accidentally triggering jump packs or climbing on supply pods while using the interact button on controller
• Fixed an issue where exiting the chat was leaving players unarmed
• Fixed an issue with aiming during the draw emote
• Fixed issues when exiting First Person View using emotes

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The only officially licensed John Wick video game is being removed from sale just six years after launch.

Bithell Games’ well-received John Wick Hex launched in October 2019. It’s a fast-paced, action-oriented strategy game “that makes you think and strike like John Wick.” John Wick, of course, is the hugely popular action hero made famous by Keanu Reeves.

Fast forward six years and John Wick Hex is set for the digital scrapheap. In an update directed at the game’s community, publisher Big Fan Games (which is part of Devolver Digital) said John Wick Hex will be removed from sale on all platforms beginning July 17, 2025.

After July 17, existing owners of John Wick Hex will still be able to access the game via their digital libraries across PC and console, and of course physical copies will continue to work on console. However, new purchases of John Wick Hex will not be possible, regardless of platform or storefront.

Big Fan Games failed to say why John Wick Hex was being removed from sale, but it seems likely it’s the result of the expiration of its licence with John Wick rights holder Lionsgate Entertainment. IGN has asked Big Fan for comment.

The expiration of a licence is one of the main reasons video games end up being pulled from storefronts; you see it most often with video games that have licensed music. It happened to Alan Wake, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake trailers, and Spec Ops: The Line, to name but a few. Video game preservationists often call for video game companies to do more to keep their products alive when this happens. Back in 2018, Rockstar replaced Grand Theft Auto IV song licenses that had expired after the end of a 10-year deal.

As for Bithell Games, it released Tron: Catalyst last month. The game was developed in collaboration with Disney and Pixar Games, and is set within the world of Tron.

And as for John Wick, he recently cameoed in spinoff Ballerina, and John Wick 5, once again starring Keanu Reeves, is in development, although we’re not sure when it will come out. Director Chad Stahelski recently said he’s still trying to work out how to make Keanu Reeves in John Wick 5 make sense given the ending of 4. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves reportedly pays a company a few thousand dollars a month to get the likes of TikTok and Meta to take down imitators.

Lionsgate has confirmed it has a John Wick AAA video game in the works, although it has said nothing about it.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.