Rivalries are usually quite rare in the video game industry, but there have been some notable cases over the last few decades. One of the earliest gaming rivalries was between Nintendo and Sega, and more specifically, their two mascots Mario and Sonic. Then things started to heat up in the 2000s, with Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band, GTA vs. Saints Row, and Forza vs. Gran Turismo. The 2010s put the two giant FPS franchises Battlefield and Call of Duty against one another. And though the 2020s have been relatively peaceful, a slight rivalry has formed between Dying Light 2 and Dead Island 2.
Released back in February 2022, Dying Light 2 had the zombie gaming market all to itself, or at least that's what it thought. In August 2022, Dead Island 2 made its bewildering return announcement after being dead in the water for almost a whole decade, and earlier this year, it finally did what many thought impossible and actually hit store shelves. While both games share some similarities, they also share plenty of differences, and one of the biggest points of separation is how each game is handling its post-launch content.
How Dying Light 2 and Dead Island 2's Post-Launch Approach Differs
Since releasing back in April of this year, Dead Island 2 has only put out one or two post-launch content drops, consisting only of new cosmetic skins. The first of these updates added the Premium Character Packs, adding new outfits for each playable character. The second update added another set of cosmetic skins for Dead Island 2's characters, this time coming from the "Til Dawn" Collection. Unlike the first set of skins, the Til Dawn Collection can be unlocked through gameplay by hitting certain milestones.
Aside from the two cosmetic DLCs already available for the game, Dead Island 2 currently has another handful of updates planned for release in the near future. The first of these updates, titled Haus, will add a new story expansion to the game, along with another set of skins titled the "From Dusk" Collection. This first pack is set to launch sometime in Q4 of this year, likely in either November of December. The second update on Dead Island 2's roadmap brings another story expansion to the game, this one being titled SOLA Festival. Both of these story DLCs be available through Dead Island 2's Expansion Pass only.
With Dying Light 2 releasing all the way back in February 2022, it's naturally had a lot longer to put out its own post-launch content. When Dying Light 2 first released, it followed a fairly similar approach to Dead Island 2, releasing a handful of cosmetic packs that could both be paid for or unlocked in-game. But in the year and a bit that's followed, Dying Light 2's post-launch support has gotten a lot more intensive.
Just before Dying Light 2 released, developer Techland announced plans to keep the game going for at least five years through post-launch updates, essentially making it a live-service game. Because of that, Techland has continued to update Dying Light 2 consistently over the course of the last year and a bit. These updates have ranged from small tweaks to full-on story expansions, side missions, enemy types, more weapons, and a whole new currency and reward system for the new bounty mission type. And there are plenty more post-launch updates on the way. While Dead Island 2 will probably wrap things up after its two story expansions, it seems as though Dying Light 2 will just continue to put out content, just as long as there's an audience there to play it.
Dying Light 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
