It's been over two years since Dying Light 2 was first announced at E3 2018, but there's still no sign of Techland's zombie sequel. From what has been revealed, the game will mostly follow in the footsteps of its predecessor. The new protagonist, Aiden Caldwell, will once again be taking on the zombie apocalypse with a mixture of melee and parkour skills. Dying Light 2 will be set 15 years after the original title, and for some fans, it may have felt that long since the first game now.
Originally bound for an early 2020 release, Dying Light 2 was delayed in January of this year. At the time, Techland stated that the game needed to be pushed back to allow for additional development, but gave no new release window. Since then, there's been no further news from the Polish developer. Although many other titles have been delayed this year, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most have given a revised launch window.
A Year-Long Delay
While almost no information has been released about Dying Light 2 this year, there's a strangely large amount of information available. From what Techland has announced, its new zombie game sounds like an ambitious sequel, aiming to expand on the original title in almost every way. Apparently, the game will feature a dynamic, evolving world, as well as a branching storyline. Reportedly drawing inspiration from Game of Thrones as well as The Walking Dead, Dying Light 2 will be set in a new Dark Age for humanity. To cap it all, the game is built on a custom engine designed at Techland. It's entirely possible that these ambitious plans, and the numerous problems that could have arisen from them, may have lengthened the delay.
Despite the silence surrounding the delay, there has been some news this year that's related to Dying Light 2. In June, Techland announced that it was parting ways with well-known writer Chris Avellone, who'd been brought in to hone the game's narrative. The decision to remove Avellone from the project was based on allegations of sexual misconduct. While the game is, hopefully, past the bulk writing stage at this point, this may still have contributed to its delay.
Next-Gen or Last-Gen?
Under normal circumstances, delaying the release of a game runs only a small risk of being harmful to its eventual success. In fact, it's often the games that are rushed out in an unfinished state that end up failing to live up to their own potential. However, the fact that Dying Light 2 has been delayed all the way through 2020 might be more problematic than usual.
This is because November 2020 will see the launch of a brand new console generation: the Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5. While it was announced back in 2019 that Dying Light 2 would eventually be appearing on the new consoles, its original early 2020 launch means that it was supposed to see out the bulk of sales and hype on their predecessors.
This means the year-long delay may now have put Techland in an awkward position. It's a rock and a hard wall on whether to focus on new consoles or risk being criticized for releasing PS4 and Xbox One versions with base hardware upgrades, and that's not to mention any number of others that could potentially lengthen this delay itself.
It may well be that the indefinite delay to Dying Light 2 has been worsened with everything going on in the world today, and many plans may have gone out the window from a marketing standpoint. It's likely that Techland intended to spend 2020 polishing up the game for the new consoles, after it had already released for the previous generation. Now the title must straddle the two generations, and do its best to find a balance between them.
Dying Light 2 is in development.