Dead Island 2 - Deep Silver Fires Yager!

Several sites of the Eurogamer network published the news and several updates on the divorce between the publisher Deep Silver and the independent AAA developer Yager Development. Deep Silver moved the Dead Island 2 contract from Yager to an undisclosed other studio.

Here are parts of Deep Silver's comment

With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver has always been dedicated to delivering the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve. After careful consideration, today we announce the decision to part ways with development partner Yager," publisher Deep Silver said in a statement.

"We will continue working towards bringing our vision of Dead Island 2 to life, and we will share further information at a later stage."

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and Yager's statement:

In a statement issued to GamesIndustry.biz, Ullmann reiterated the company's commitment to both AAA development and its own independence - an increasingly difficult double-act in the modern games industry.

"Our team is made of the best creative minds and tech specialists, who all share a common identity," he said. "The team worked with enthusiasm to take Dead Island 2 to a new level of quality. However, Yager and Deep Silver's respective visions of the project fell out of alignment, which led to the decision that has been made."

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The German Eurogamer site also writes they've heard rumors about a substantial number of layoffs at Yager following Deep Silver's decision.

Yager is working on at least two other projects, the space shooter Dreadnought and unannounced project(s).

More information.

Probably they wanted more money for the project and deep silver been deep silver axed them. This is why techland and deep don't work anymore.
Tech got big ambitious regarding their next game aka dying light while deep was reluctant to put alot of cash in one project so they departed.
Tech found partners in warner bros while deep got hooked up with Yager who needed a publisher to keep themself afloat as they are big independent studio.
I hope this doesn't result in a major layoffs though it is very likly.

You got some things wrong there. Yager was for sure more expensive than Techland would have been.
Things went well for Techland though.

Yager is known for endless expensive prototyping.
Really, how many games have they released in recent years?

Gorath said:

You got some things wrong there. Yager was for sure more expensive than Techland would have been.
Things went well for Techland though.

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Of course they are.
Techland = Poland.
Yager = Germany.
And yet Yager is in no postion they can dismiss work opportunities left and right,
so they had to accept deep silver conditions, which techland refused to.
deep silver is known as a stingy publisher so when things went wrong and
cost went up they cut the funding a left a scorched earth.

Never heard about this Yager company.
Deep Silver is IMO hit and miss publisher, but one thing they did good - they didn't allow to go bankrupt by keeping products hidden from the world nor sold their souls (read: IP) to BigPoint.

http://www.pcgamer.com/dead-island-2-split-was-caused-by-conflicting-visions-yager-ceo-says/

Dead Island 2 split was caused by conflicting "visions," Yager CEO says

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"We work closely with international publishers and partners and have at the same time always remained an independent development studio. Our team is made of the best creative minds and tech specialists who all share a common identity," Yager CEO Timo Ullman said in a statement. "The team worked with enthusiasm to take Dead Island 2 to a new level of quality. However, YAGER and Deep Silver's respective visions of the project fell out of alignment, which led to the decision that has been made."

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Like I said…

Is there a specific reason why you're quoting things I've already written in the news?

It does indeed look like DS told Yager to get it over with so they can ship it while Yager insisted on the originally planned quality level.

We don't know a thing about their contract though. It's only clear that Yager got a contract after Techland and DS did not to come to an agreement. Yager's pitch was certainly different to whatever Techland & DS were negotiating about.

joxer said:

Never heard about this Yager company.

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One of the few AAA developers from Germany. Few games, high quality, very good technology, their last game was heavily story-driven. They go for the classic dev & pubisher model, so they basically don't talk at all unless marketing says so.

joxer said:

Never heard about this Yager company.

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They developed Spec Ops: The Line.

MysterD said:

They developed Spec Ops: The Line.

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Never heard about that too.

Gorath said:

One of the few AAA developers from Germany. Few games, high quality, very good technology, their last game was heavily story-driven. They go for the classic dev & pubisher model, so they basically don't talk at all unless marketing says so.

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Seriously, never seen their name anywhere. And it's not that I refuse to play anything AAA...

I havn't botherd myself to read the quotes though i saw pcgamer news title
and it's describing the issue at hand more frankly.

joxer said:

Never heard about that too.

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You should check Spec Ops: The Line it is quite good in my opinion.
It's a FPS but with a very good story.

Better than FarCry 3?

If you ask this way, then you have never understood this game at all - but I must admit that its title is as much nondescript as possible. It could've been called Called of Duty-Ops as well.

But - even I have heard of this game, as it seems to stand out from all of the current war shooters because of its story. That's what I read, I haven't played it, ever (just not my genre).

Strafe said:

You should check Spec Ops: The Line it is quite good in my opinion.
It's a FPS but with a very good story.

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It is a third-person shooter, not an FPS. Very big difference. And it is a very, very mediocre third-person shooter with floaty controls and bland gameplay. However, many people loved the story because they view it as showing the futility and evil of war and the military. It also has some "what is even real?" elements people enjoyed (but I found contrived and done better in many books and films).

I personally played it and found the art and environments to be very nice, but the gameplay was terribly average. Floaty third-person shooting. Visually messy as well. It wasn't a well-made video game, technically.

But again, some obsess over the game saying it was one of the most impactful games ever…I don't understand the praise…it all seems to boil down to how the game paints the military as villians and keeps harping on the pointlessness of war. That story has been told countless times…read Heart of Darkness rather than play a very bland third-person shooter, IMO.

PS: so yeah, Yager…they don't have a good track record with quality. They got one hit with Spec Ops: The Line based on the popular anti-military sentiment of our day, not on the quality of the gameplay.

PPS: To quote Total Biscuit: "Spec Ops isnt a good game per-say, it's a deliberately mundane 3rd person shooter which makes you think about the horrors of war." ...although by think of the horrors of war it means the game shows you rogue US military personnel committing evil acts...and you're supposed to think "gee, isn't war bad". Again, this is not sophisticated analysis.