It took a decade and multiple development teams to get Dead Island 2 finished and out the door, but in the end it was worth the effort. In its year-end financial report, Embracer Group said that it is now the most successful game release in Deep Silver's history.
Dead Island 2 didn't knock our socks off, but it racked up one million sales in its launch weekend, a pretty solid success by any measure. One month later, it's more than doubled that number.
"Dead Island 2, developed by internal studio Deep Silver Dambuster (Plaion), was released after the quarter, on April 21, by internal publisher Deep Silver (Plaion)," Embracer said in its Q4 financial report. "It has enjoyed a highly successful start, surpassing 1 million units sold within its first weekend (21-23 April). Currently, the game has achieved an impressive milestone of over 2 million units sold.
"When measured over the initial seven-day sales period, Dead Island 2 has become the largest launch in both units sold and revenue generated in the history of Deep Silver and Plaion. The game’s performance has far surpassed the management’s initial expectations."
Plaion, if you're not familiar with the name, is Deep Silver's parent company, formerly known as Koch Media. Koch changed its name to Plaion in 2022; at the time, senior editor Rich Stanton speculated the change was made because company leadership got sick of the dick jokes, but that remains unconfirmed. The old name, for the record, was pronounced "kotsch," while the new one is "play-on."
The success of Dead Island 2 will presumably ensure another sequel, which will hopefully not take as long as this one did. It's also a spot of good news in an otherwise very "rough d for Embracer, which saw a $2 billion development deal fall apart yesterday, less than 24 hours before it was set to be revealed.
