This browser is amazing. I haven't switched to it full time as my ADHD brain always keep 100+ tabs open in my browser and I haven't cleared my current browser yet. But when I do use it, it's amazing!
I love how most of these stories can be booked down to the people on the business side don't actually know how to make games and they hear buzzwords and say do that
I think it equally is developers biting off more that they can chew and having ideas they are unable to implement fully because of time/money/technology issues.
I know Volition didn't want to back down from SR2022 given the way it was but this was just them pulling the trigger on that game being the sanitized, safe joke it wound up being; Deep Silver gave the order for that at the end of the day and that led them thinking it would have sold better than Volition's idea of a Saints Row reboot being more like Saints Row 2.5.
They don't seem like villains to me. They effed up. And crap didn't work. I'm surprised they managed to stay afloat themselves. Cause they didn't really seem to know what they were doing. They don't seem different than any developer studio to me. One that screwed up.
@@DSan-kl2yc For businessmen, feedback are not needed as long as idiots pay. For people like us, why the hell are there still idiots paying for that crap?
It’s always fascinating to learn about games that spend a decade in development hell that finally come out, and see the history on why it took them so long .
The problem was the parent company wanting dead island 2 to be the next GTA. I never understand why these people who never made a game in their life can demand so much and act like developing a open world game is easy.
Well get ready for a lot more videos like this. We've been waiting for ten years for most big AAA franchises to finally return. Elder Scrolls, mainline Mass Effect, GTA, etc...
@@nousername2942 don't think GTA 6 will be on what happens I think the main problem is the hardware isn't able to keep up with the games development they probably want the game to be graphically perfect so that it can be a solid game for decades to come.
@@SoggywafflecakesNo, it's just people keep putting money into GTA online so why would they make a new one? If they make a new releases worth of money each year from microtransaction with no where near as much work why would they make a new game?
@ClOuD006 now he's part of Microsoft. Like he had a massive comeback and depending if Microsoft make the series multiplat this could make or break. Like at least Sega stuck with Sonic day 1.
I know what you're gonna say. But honestly I really liked those two. Maybe some of the designs weren't that good but they are fun kids brawlers. Honestly seeing a lot of the concepts from both Traveller's Tales and Radical I wish one of those companies still had the license. I think they'd do better than Activision. Crash 4 had a great story but the game was unnecessarily difficult. Even if they had Vicarious Visions keep doing it. Which is what they should've done.
Shout out to Techland for pulling literally the chaddest move ever and leaving to curse Deep Silver with a nightmare of their own hubris while living their best lives elsewhere.
22:57 I wholeheartedly wish that every video game publisher and developer would adapt and adhere to a No Crunch policy like Dambusters did, because crunch is very much detrimental to the quality of a game and the health of those who are forced to work under crunch.
@@francisoffilth7953yeah no, a lot of the time crunch is people working 18-20 hours a day, sleeping at desks, not being able to go home, and not getting adequately paid for it.
@@francisoffilth7953or maybe, just maybe, both are bad. How about we not laugh at people who are in inhumane working conditions, and actually help them?
@@francisoffilth7953 No, that is not what crunch is in the video game industry. Having made 150 of these episodes, crunch is far far worse than what you're attempting to laugh it off as. To get AAA games out the door on time, It's sleeping at your desk overnight, not getting paid much more, not getting weekends off and not seeing your family, and can last a year or more. Please educate yourself.
I'm just surprised that the game actually came out, because I was sure it wouldn't after almost a full decade from the first trailer. It's one of those games that's pitch perfect example of "What Happened?!"
Its weird they didnt want a parkour system in dead island considering once you learn the map you can pretty much jump your way through the island avoiding most conflicts
The craziest part of this story IMO is just how GOOD Dead Island 2 turned out to be despite the years of hell it went through. The graphics honestly look really great and the combat is fun as fuck. Stuff like that with games like this almost never happens.
@@autismandgaming453215, or originally FF 13 versus, is another one. Square started working on the game in 2006 where it was announced at E3 that year. I remember the trailer came out around 2008, and we didn’t get the game until like Christmas 2016 after the game being on the verge of cancellation multiple times. FF15 was definitely flawed, but it’s still a great game, especially for being in development Hell for that long.
Combat honestly leaves a much to be desired but the game does look good graphically. Like way better than what anyone was expecting for a game that was in dev hell for a decade.
one of my favorite parts of the story is how crazy it is that after all the problems ue4 gave the game on 8th gen the final version of dead island 2 is like, one of the best performing ue4 games on the base consoles
Thinking back on it, Dead Island 1 wasn't a bad RPG, while the main story and writing in general was lackluster, the actual progression, rewards and the way you could interact with a lot optional content, many which were worth it, was really nice. Maybe if they focused on that more, like Zombies Skyrim, they would managed to find their footing and success much better.
Which is ironic because the storytelling of the trailer is really good and still really memorable. Guess they invested most of their budget on that trailer
@@hornetsilksong It's not necessarily a budget issue (although it can be) but it's the fact that a lot of CGI trailers and high-effort marketing campaigns are made by entirely separate teams, possibly entirely different companies. Their job is to make a good looking trailer, but they might have nothing more than an outline of the project and some concept art to work from. That's why so many trailers and marketing material can be misleading. The people making the ad don't know what the game is gonna be, and the people making the game don't know what the ad is going to be.
@@hornetsilksongNah they outsourced the trailer and apparently the company doing it had no idea what the game was so made an excellent short film rather than trailer for the game.
Here's another bit of fun information on the game that I assume you didn't know. Or forgot because no one seems to remember but me. Back in 2014 Escape Dead Island was released for 360 and PS3, and if you pre-ordered it from Gamestop (which I did...) you would get an invite to a private beta for Dead Island 2. The beta never happened of course. And I still have those email for it, which was from 2015 from Square Enix saying the beta for DI2 was TBA...
while looking at zombies, you should totally take a look at dying light 2. It has one of the most interesting dev hell stories in my opinion, since there were basically 3 different games made from reveal to release
Dead Island was a guilty pleasure of mine and when DI2 dropped, it was rare that through all the development hell, it was a solid experience. No real glitches or hitches in the game, stable 60fps on ps5 and had fun. ALSO MY BOY SAM B!!!
I first played Dead Island back on PS3, but I didn't beat it. It wasn't until 2022 that I beat Dead Island 1 & Riptide with a friend. Dead Island 1 & Riptide were an absolute joy to play. I never use this word, but I felt 'giddy' playing the games and didn't want to stop. I beat Dying Light twice before beating Dead Island and gotta say I prefer Dead Island. When it comes to Dead Island 2, it is such a phenomenal game to me. Dead Island 2 kept everything good about the original games and added a bunch of great features and more gorgeous graphics. It's the first game in a very long time that I was excited for multiple playthroughs
This was a great episode! I especially loved the ending where the original development studio's game idea absolutely blew away expectations. Props to them!
It was inevitable. DI2 had a long dev history after all. You can't have a high profile game be in development that long without having a story behind it.
In 1997 I had played so much of House of the Dead (worked at a movie theater) that I'm sitting here how recognizing that music before even scrolling down to check the description. What a show, what a channel. Well done.
I kind of always wondered what happened during Turok 3's development. I remember reading on IGN about the game having "living environments" and then that just not appearing at all. I imagine it was as simple as realizing open world fps on the n64 was just not practical, but maybe there's an interesting story there.
I would imagine if the game was on pc or the ps2 at the time to realize their ambition. That being said hearing more of the behind the scene could be interesting. Especially since to this day it still a turok game left behind on the old console.
Appreciate you shouting out the author of the article. As a game journalist myself, it's always nice to see, especially since a lot of readers can be verbally abusive and love claiming the author is an idiot, not realizing their are several editors going over every piece and not always making the best decisions. My editors are great, but I've seen a lot of good folks at other publications get torn a new one over a statement in their article that they were forced to make by an editor who misunderstood the situation. The "hurr durr, game journalist bad, someone paid for this review" shit gets so fucking old, it's really nice seeing someone support the work we do.
Nothing brings me more joy than knowing Deep Silver cheeping out on their initial bud caused them to spend almost 5 times more than if they would have just spent the necessary money the first time.
And also missing out on Techland's vision on making dying light. If deep silver had just helped techland, then they would have had a hit series that would sell 20+ million copies. It is insane that they just cheapened out in making a sequel instead of letting tech land do their thing.
This really goes to show how toxic Deep Silver is. You look back on their history of screwing with their developers, and you get the issues that plagued the later Saints Row titles, MN9's inability to get the promised handheld builds out, and so forth. They'd probably be #1 on the list of publishers I'd look at an offer from and immediately throw away no matter how good the offer looked.
Really appreciated the bits about Unreal Engine not being suited. Every framework/engine/software has strengths and weaknesses and every professional programmer has horror stories about needing to put square pegs in round holes. Sometimes just for 1 or 2 features, often for entire projects because of stubborn executives that don't understand such things will improve their worker's morale and the final product.
Considering so many of these stories end up just being executives following trends and buzzwords and not listening to actual devs, i can't wait for all the stories in years to come of studio's screwing up projects with N/F/T's, Blockchains and A/I. And yes, a video on Free Radical would be AMAZING! If not to just remind me about the greatness that was Timesplitters.
Techland : Okay, look, we got this cool idea to make a Dead Island with Parkour and more aggressive varients, with looting in the mix and a emphasis on Survival Horror. DS : No. It won't sell and it's not like the first one. Techland : > leaves Deep Silver > Makes their own studio and makes Dying Light, with something original and fun. > Sells millions of copies DS : > Can't even get one studio to work on Dead Island 2 > Makes it like the original DI > Sells like crap. ...fuck.
Plus dying light runs GREAT Dead island 2 does NOT To everyone saying im wrong and it runs perfectly fine for you, proof it. Go to venice beach, Avenue and Beverly hills and run around entire map for 15 minutes. If you on 120hz, show me it doesn't drop below 100fps. If you on 60hz, show me it doesn't drop below 59fps. Show me... oh wait you can't because it runs like crap. It's an engine problem so everyone has them. No matter your setting 2k, 4k, low vs ultra, doesn't matter it's the same crap performance on the same area's spots.
This game wasnt about telling a good story or character development, but, made what a game is supposed to, being an enjoyable game, I was hours and hours punching zombies Just to see that gut feeling
Honestly Dead Island 2 is Dead Island but 2. For a game that spent so long in development hell it’s amazing that it came out the other end as a relatively good game.
A sword art online game with the gore of dead island 2 would be 🔥 🔥 🔥 Like most SAO games focus on the over the top when they should make one closer to how the original game was like
I’ve actually been playing a 2015 Yager build of Dead Island 2 on my computer and it’s shockingly good and I loved what they were going for. It truly seemed like it would be a perfect zombie game if only it also had the gore mechanics of Dambuster. When playing it, it feels sad thinking of what could’ve been…
Kinda wild that Dying Light was Dead Island but better. But then came the "2", then suddenly, what I'm hearing became that Dying Light 2 was a disappointment while Dead Island 2 was actually good.
To be fair though. After Dead Island 2 dropped it's almost like Techland kicked themselves into gear. Never been a fan of Dying Light even when the original came out but it seems like they do have a lot of passion for the project. They even upgraded the gore and more recently added a bunch of cut content out of nowhere. Even I think the game looks cool now. Idk if i'd get it for 60 dollars though.
Dying light 2 had a lot cut from the demo they shown Colonel is practically at epilogue instead of the middle of the game they cut out Elysium a gigantic city with different factions battling it out
Nah. Dying Light 2 was solid but a huge downgrade from the first. Meanwhile Dead Island 2 was a super safe and mediocre game that was relatively well polished. Dead Island 2 very much feels like a game that would have been great if it launched in 2013.
"Techland wanted to make a more serious, open world zombie game focused on Dying Light" Hey, that sounds like Dying Light. "Techland took thier pitch elsewhere. This results in a big L for Deep Silver." It is Dying Light, isn't it? 16 minutes later "It was Dying Light" I am the opposite of shocked.
Hey just a heads up, at 25:02 you used the wrong box art. 1-2 Switch came out in 2017, but I assume you were referencing "Everybody 1-2 Switch", the sequel that came out this year.
I'll never forget the day my sis and I played Dead Island on the PS3 together back when Dead Island 1 was relatively new if not brand new. We even tried to do online co-op as she owned the console herself iirc and tried to do that together. The moment the Dead Island 2 trailer dropped on youtube we were all rearin' to go and ready to pre-order (thankfully we did not lol). For a bomb about to blow up it sure took a looong time!
@6:00 So Techland wanted to basically make Dying light before dying light was a thing, expand dead island story and make it a dope franchise and Deep silver said no😮😂
I really hope that this entire ordeal gave Deep Silver a well deserved slice of humble pie. There’s nothing that frustrates me more than money-counting executives with little game development experience setting the expectations for developers’ projects with unrealistic budgets and time frames. When they let the actual developers work at their most effective state, then the games they produce will turn out great.
It was kinda funny when I was calling people for their pre-orders because a lot of them forgot they even had pre-ordered the game. I don't blame anybody because some of their pre-orders were placed 10 years prior lmaoo
The fact that BOTH Dead Island games had a decade long dev period speaks volumes of what Deep Silver are like. I'm gunna wait for a sale for this one, I only wanna play it for the co-op so I can wait for it to drop
I guess it's almost time to talk about Dying Light 2? Maybe not as much dev hell as Dead Island 2 but I really thought it was going that direction after seeing the revolving door of people entering and exiting that project. I'm honestly surprised it reviewed well.
And cd projket has said the cyberpunk sequel will move away from the red engine to unreal, can’t wait to see how that goes lmao. Not shitting on cyberpunk though that game is amazing in its current state.
My head shot up at hearing Blake Hester's name. He's a great writer, and also co-hosts a podcast about "rotten" video games (think Manhunt and Kane and Lynch) with Jacob Geller called Something Rotten that has some really interesting discussions, that also got me to play games I would not otherwise have touched.
Deep Silver brings in a consultant firm and give feedback to start from scratch. Deep Silver doesn't like their recommendation. Deep Silver brings in another consultant firm that says to start from scratch.
>me watching the decision on parkour zombie game: "Oh, I know where this is going." Yet it couldn't prepare me for how absolutely more massive Dying Light is. Thay game really blew up.
I haven't worked in the gaming industry, but I've done media work in the corporate industry, and it's crazy that the people with all the money and the power just say "Do this, and I want it by Monday" and it's Friday today. The execs really don't know what happens in development and it's sad to see people get screwed over and sacked because of greedy business decisions. In the design studio where I used to work, we would invite people to be a part of the design process, and get them to monitor what we do and we would ask for feedback, and most of them are so against it, and it became such a thing, that some higher ups allowed us more time to develop content because they got bored sitting and watching us do the work
For real, the game had some good combat and the flesh system really made slicing a zombie up satisfying. Just wish the story was stronger and didn't end on a cliffhanger.
I thought I was LOSING MY MIND. I was like what is this song, I know this song but I don’t know why. Checked the video desc for music sources and couldn’t find the ad music. Thank you for shouting this out. Matt’s editor(s) have pretty great taste.
I just feel bad for Dambuster studios, between this and Homefront The Revolution, they CAN make good games, but they're always given the short end of the stick from publishers.
Your current browser is bad. Get a better one here: operagx.gg/MattMcMuscles
Using Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth music during that sponsor segment was the most unexpected thing EVER. Kinda digging it though, lol.
I've been using Opera's browser on both Android and PC, it's really lovely to have!
The theme in this video from 2:23 to 4:50 is familiar so what is theme name??
but matt i am using opera GX to watch this????
This browser is amazing. I haven't switched to it full time as my ADHD brain always keep 100+ tabs open in my browser and I haven't cleared my current browser yet. But when I do use it, it's amazing!
I love how most of these stories can be booked down to the people on the business side don't actually know how to make games and they hear buzzwords and say do that
It baffles me that they make a great trailer for the game 9 YEARS AGO but when it's released they expect us to remember the game.
@@asquirrelplays basically
I think it equally is developers biting off more that they can chew and having ideas they are unable to implement fully because of time/money/technology issues.
9 times outta 10, development problems boil down to business not letting art do it's artting because it wants to business
@@Sonichero151 Exactly. Management's job is to make sure the development stays on course, not telling the artists what they should be doing.
Hearing about Damnbuster having that no crunch policy for the last 5 years, puts a tear to my eye. Good on them.
"Damnbuster" lol
Please don't edit this, it's beautiful.
It shows as well, games super well polished.
Deep sliver was probably just like release something to dambuster after saints row wasn't doing well
@@DangerVillecheck mark jumpscare
Every time that Deep Silver appears in one of these, they’re almost always the villains in some capacity. I don’t know if that’s talked about enough.
No wonder their logo is a shark, then. Sharks are often shown as the cruel villains of ocean animals
I know Volition didn't want to back down from SR2022 given the way it was but this was just them pulling the trigger on that game being the sanitized, safe joke it wound up being; Deep Silver gave the order for that at the end of the day and that led them thinking it would have sold better than Volition's idea of a Saints Row reboot being more like Saints Row 2.5.
@@caffeinatedhypnos8048 Youre thinking of the Dambuster studios, the 4th studio that got handed the franchise, not Deep Silver.
They don't seem like villains to me. They effed up. And crap didn't work. I'm surprised they managed to stay afloat themselves. Cause they didn't really seem to know what they were doing.
They don't seem different than any developer studio to me. One that screwed up.
@@DSan-kl2yc For businessmen, feedback are not needed as long as idiots pay. For people like us, why the hell are there still idiots paying for that crap?
It’s always fascinating to learn about games that spend a decade in development hell that finally come out, and see the history on why it took them so long .
The problem was the parent company wanting dead island 2 to be the next GTA. I never understand why these people who never made a game in their life can demand so much and act like developing a open world game is easy.
Well get ready for a lot more videos like this. We've been waiting for ten years for most big AAA franchises to finally return. Elder Scrolls, mainline Mass Effect, GTA, etc...
@@nousername2942 don't think GTA 6 will be on what happens I think the main problem is the hardware isn't able to keep up with the games development they probably want the game to be graphically perfect so that it can be a solid game for decades to come.
@@Soggywafflecakes And they also didn't want to pay GTA money to make it.
@@SoggywafflecakesNo, it's just people keep putting money into GTA online so why would they make a new one? If they make a new releases worth of money each year from microtransaction with no where near as much work why would they make a new game?
Crash of the Titans and Crash: Mind Over Mutant: What Happened
Alot crash has been thur alot 😔
@ClOuD006 now he's part of Microsoft. Like he had a massive comeback and depending if Microsoft make the series multiplat this could make or break.
Like at least Sega stuck with Sonic day 1.
I know what you're gonna say. But honestly I really liked those two. Maybe some of the designs weren't that good but they are fun kids brawlers. Honestly seeing a lot of the concepts from both Traveller's Tales and Radical I wish one of those companies still had the license. I think they'd do better than Activision. Crash 4 had a great story but the game was unnecessarily difficult. Even if they had Vicarious Visions keep doing it. Which is what they should've done.
I have a soft spot for those games but it would be interesting to see how they came to be.
Crash of titans was okay the sequel mind over mutant can just die
You know what? HUGE props to Dumbuster Games! With such a game, that was in development hell for such a long time, they launched a really good game!
It's also good to finally see them get a good game out, considering how much they got fucked in the ass during their Free Radical days
Shout out to Techland for pulling literally the chaddest move ever and leaving to curse Deep Silver with a nightmare of their own hubris while living their best lives elsewhere.
I think Deep Silver needs to be put down, at this point.
They really pulled a blackjack and hookers moment
The idea Deep Silver was left with pretty much nothing but the name "Dead Island" and still set the game in California lol.
@@TapirMaskthey could have at least set it after a massive earthquake or rising sea levels to make California an island.
@@TapirMaskOr at least Florida, and go with that shitty Simpsons joke of "This isn't an island, it's a peninsula!"
22:57 I wholeheartedly wish that every video game publisher and developer would adapt and adhere to a No Crunch policy like Dambusters did, because crunch is very much detrimental to the quality of a game and the health of those who are forced to work under crunch.
@@francisoffilth7953yeah no, a lot of the time crunch is people working 18-20 hours a day, sleeping at desks, not being able to go home, and not getting adequately paid for it.
@@francisoffilth7953sounds like you just wanted to feel tough and cool and left a dumbass comment to do it.
@@francisoffilth7953 That should be fought against too, ya know? It is not a good justification lol.
@@francisoffilth7953or maybe, just maybe, both are bad. How about we not laugh at people who are in inhumane working conditions, and actually help them?
@@francisoffilth7953 No, that is not what crunch is in the video game industry. Having made 150 of these episodes, crunch is far far worse than what you're attempting to laugh it off as. To get AAA games out the door on time, It's sleeping at your desk overnight, not getting paid much more, not getting weekends off and not seeing your family, and can last a year or more. Please educate yourself.
I'm just surprised that the game actually came out, because I was sure it wouldn't after almost a full decade from the first trailer. It's one of those games that's pitch perfect example of "What Happened?!"
Its weird they didnt want a parkour system in dead island considering once you learn the map you can pretty much jump your way through the island avoiding most conflicts
The craziest part of this story IMO is just how GOOD Dead Island 2 turned out to be despite the years of hell it went through. The graphics honestly look really great and the combat is fun as fuck. Stuff like that with games like this almost never happens.
Only other game I can think of that had an over decade development and turned out great was Metroid Dread
@@autismandgaming4532 well metroid was basically dropped, the one we have is a totally new project
@@autismandgaming453215, or originally FF 13 versus, is another one. Square started working on the game in 2006 where it was announced at E3 that year. I remember the trailer came out around 2008, and we didn’t get the game until like Christmas 2016 after the game being on the verge of cancellation multiple times. FF15 was definitely flawed, but it’s still a great game, especially for being in development Hell for that long.
Combat honestly leaves a much to be desired but the game does look good graphically. Like way better than what anyone was expecting for a game that was in dev hell for a decade.
Game is dated af
one of my favorite parts of the story is how crazy it is that after all the problems ue4 gave the game on 8th gen the final version of dead island 2 is like, one of the best performing ue4 games on the base consoles
Thinking back on it, Dead Island 1 wasn't a bad RPG, while the main story and writing in general was lackluster, the actual progression, rewards and the way you could interact with a lot optional content, many which were worth it, was really nice. Maybe if they focused on that more, like Zombies Skyrim, they would managed to find their footing and success much better.
The ragdoll zombies was also really REALLY entertaining.
Which is ironic because the storytelling of the trailer is really good and still really memorable. Guess they invested most of their budget on that trailer
@@hornetsilksong It's not necessarily a budget issue (although it can be) but it's the fact that a lot of CGI trailers and high-effort marketing campaigns are made by entirely separate teams, possibly entirely different companies. Their job is to make a good looking trailer, but they might have nothing more than an outline of the project and some concept art to work from.
That's why so many trailers and marketing material can be misleading. The people making the ad don't know what the game is gonna be, and the people making the game don't know what the ad is going to be.
It wasn't the game the trailer promised though and that was a bitter pill to swallow.
@@hornetsilksongNah they outsourced the trailer and apparently the company doing it had no idea what the game was so made an excellent short film rather than trailer for the game.
Honestly the biggest shock was that Dambusters actually managed to completely avoid Crunch when making the game..... that's very based right there
Here's another bit of fun information on the game that I assume you didn't know. Or forgot because no one seems to remember but me. Back in 2014 Escape Dead Island was released for 360 and PS3, and if you pre-ordered it from Gamestop (which I did...) you would get an invite to a private beta for Dead Island 2. The beta never happened of course. And I still have those email for it, which was from 2015 from Square Enix saying the beta for DI2 was TBA...
I'm shocked Escape Dead Island wasn't even mentioned, even as like "here's some filler." "Thanks, I hate it."
I actually loved this game, it came out way better than it should have considering the rocky development.
I agree
It has an amazing gore system and some funny characters but loses much appeal from me after that
I loved the first one though
When it came out i wanted to immediately know the story behind development
This video answers my questions
while looking at zombies, you should totally take a look at dying light 2. It has one of the most interesting dev hell stories in my opinion, since there were basically 3 different games made from reveal to release
Especially the unfair treatment of rhe original writer that end up being innocent
Dead Island was a guilty pleasure of mine and when DI2 dropped, it was rare that through all the development hell, it was a solid experience. No real glitches or hitches in the game, stable 60fps on ps5 and had fun. ALSO MY BOY SAM B!!!
I first played Dead Island back on PS3, but I didn't beat it. It wasn't until 2022 that I beat Dead Island 1 & Riptide with a friend. Dead Island 1 & Riptide were an absolute joy to play. I never use this word, but I felt 'giddy' playing the games and didn't want to stop. I beat Dying Light twice before beating Dead Island and gotta say I prefer Dead Island. When it comes to Dead Island 2, it is such a phenomenal game to me. Dead Island 2 kept everything good about the original games and added a bunch of great features and more gorgeous graphics. It's the first game in a very long time that I was excited for multiple playthroughs
Sony is a piece of shit company why support there ass
Hell, I had DI2 like a week or two before it came out, and it ran smoothly before it's day 1 patch came out.
This was a great episode! I especially loved the ending where the original development studio's game idea absolutely blew away expectations. Props to them!
I knew this video would happen sooner rather than later. I mean, the developer alone would've warranted this.
It was inevitable. DI2 had a long dev history after all. You can't have a high profile game be in development that long without having a story behind it.
In 1997 I had played so much of House of the Dead (worked at a movie theater) that I'm sitting here how recognizing that music before even scrolling down to check the description. What a show, what a channel. Well done.
12:47 Why is it that the people in charge have no idea how to build or what makes the product they're suppose to be in charge of?
I kind of always wondered what happened during Turok 3's development. I remember reading on IGN about the game having "living environments" and then that just not appearing at all. I imagine it was as simple as realizing open world fps on the n64 was just not practical, but maybe there's an interesting story there.
I am… TUROK!!!
I would imagine if the game was on pc or the ps2 at the time to realize their ambition. That being said hearing more of the behind the scene could be interesting. Especially since to this day it still a turok game left behind on the old console.
That F.L.E.S.H thing is so good. I love it. But dang the road to get there sure was bumpy
At this point I'm convinced that Deep Silver saw the history of EA and said "Yup we want that but worse"
😂
Appreciate you shouting out the author of the article. As a game journalist myself, it's always nice to see, especially since a lot of readers can be verbally abusive and love claiming the author is an idiot, not realizing their are several editors going over every piece and not always making the best decisions. My editors are great, but I've seen a lot of good folks at other publications get torn a new one over a statement in their article that they were forced to make by an editor who misunderstood the situation. The "hurr durr, game journalist bad, someone paid for this review" shit gets so fucking old, it's really nice seeing someone support the work we do.
Nothing brings me more joy than knowing Deep Silver cheeping out on their initial bud caused them to spend almost 5 times more than if they would have just spent the necessary money the first time.
And also missing out on Techland's vision on making dying light. If deep silver had just helped techland, then they would have had a hit series that would sell 20+ million copies. It is insane that they just cheapened out in making a sequel instead of letting tech land do their thing.
@@toledochristianmatthew9919 Hell they could have just compromised and said "you can't make Dead Island 2 like that, but you can make a new IP".
This really goes to show how toxic Deep Silver is. You look back on their history of screwing with their developers, and you get the issues that plagued the later Saints Row titles, MN9's inability to get the promised handheld builds out, and so forth.
They'd probably be #1 on the list of publishers I'd look at an offer from and immediately throw away no matter how good the offer looked.
Really appreciated the bits about Unreal Engine not being suited. Every framework/engine/software has strengths and weaknesses and every professional programmer has horror stories about needing to put square pegs in round holes. Sometimes just for 1 or 2 features, often for entire projects because of stubborn executives that don't understand such things will improve their worker's morale and the final product.
Considering so many of these stories end up just being executives following trends and buzzwords and not listening to actual devs, i can't wait for all the stories in years to come of studio's screwing up projects with N/F/T's, Blockchains and A/I. And yes, a video on Free Radical would be AMAZING! If not to just remind me about the greatness that was Timesplitters.
Techland : Okay, look, we got this cool idea to make a Dead Island with Parkour and more aggressive varients, with looting in the mix and a emphasis on Survival Horror.
DS : No. It won't sell and it's not like the first one.
Techland :
> leaves Deep Silver
> Makes their own studio and makes Dying Light, with something original and fun.
> Sells millions of copies
DS : > Can't even get one studio to work on Dead Island 2
> Makes it like the original DI
> Sells like crap.
...fuck.
Plus dying light runs GREAT
Dead island 2 does NOT
To everyone saying im wrong and it runs perfectly fine for you, proof it.
Go to venice beach, Avenue and Beverly hills and run around entire map for 15 minutes.
If you on 120hz, show me it doesn't drop below 100fps.
If you on 60hz, show me it doesn't drop below 59fps.
Show me... oh wait you can't because it runs like crap. It's an engine problem so everyone has them. No matter your setting 2k, 4k, low vs ultra, doesn't matter it's the same crap performance on the same area's spots.
Wrong it runs perfectly fine. Just another whiny baby about your precious frames.@@custer4211
THE CYBER SLEUTH MUSIC RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE?! I wasn't prepared to get funky this soon in my morning
This game wasnt about telling a good story or character development, but, made what a game is supposed to, being an enjoyable game, I was hours and hours punching zombies Just to see that gut feeling
100% this, I feel like the story did a good job at supporting the crazy and goofy gameplay tho also being goofy and not too serious
24:39 I think it was less the dark setting and more the unique parkour spin on the genre that got them the money.
Can't wait for "Metroid Prime 4: What Happened"
It's crazy how the game is so solid for being in hell for so long. Not the best but pretty enjoyable imo and sometimes that all ya need
Some of the lines are so quotable and memorable
Ehh, wish I had just played through the first one again instead of wasting my money. lol
Honestly Dead Island 2 is Dead Island but 2. For a game that spent so long in development hell it’s amazing that it came out the other end as a relatively good game.
Deep Silver: Makes unreasonable demands.
Techland: I'm about to ruin that publisher's earnings report.
Much of the music from this episode comes from Death Road To Canada, which is a terrific game that everyone should try.
14:09 So Sword Art Online but with Zombies? Kind of makes me wish Reki Kawahara had the balls to do that.
A sword art online game with the gore of dead island 2 would be 🔥 🔥 🔥
Like most SAO games focus on the over the top when they should make one closer to how the original game was like
I’ve actually been playing a 2015 Yager build of Dead Island 2 on my computer and it’s shockingly good and I loved what they were going for. It truly seemed like it would be a perfect zombie game if only it also had the gore mechanics of Dambuster. When playing it, it feels sad thinking of what could’ve been…
Drop a video
Bro, how did you get it???
i loved dead island 2, im glad to hear the final product was ethically made without crunch
It's truly a miracle how well the game turned out despite it's development history
Matt is playing Cybersleuth theme song in the background, this is why I love this cultured man.
Kinda wild that Dying Light was Dead Island but better. But then came the "2", then suddenly, what I'm hearing became that Dying Light 2 was a disappointment while Dead Island 2 was actually good.
To be fair though. After Dead Island 2 dropped it's almost like Techland kicked themselves into gear. Never been a fan of Dying Light even when the original came out but it seems like they do have a lot of passion for the project. They even upgraded the gore and more recently added a bunch of cut content out of nowhere. Even I think the game looks cool now. Idk if i'd get it for 60 dollars though.
Dying light 2 had a lot cut from the demo they shown Colonel is practically at epilogue instead of the middle of the game they cut out Elysium a gigantic city with different factions battling it out
Nah. Dying Light 2 was solid but a huge downgrade from the first.
Meanwhile Dead Island 2 was a super safe and mediocre game that was relatively well polished. Dead Island 2 very much feels like a game that would have been great if it launched in 2013.
"Techland wanted to make a more serious, open world zombie game focused on Dying Light"
Hey, that sounds like Dying Light.
"Techland took thier pitch elsewhere. This results in a big L for Deep Silver."
It is Dying Light, isn't it?
16 minutes later
"It was Dying Light"
I am the opposite of shocked.
Y'know, I'd love a 'What Happened?' on Dying Light 2.
I kinda want to hear about what.happened to crackdown 3 since that whole series seemed to have a weird story to begin with
When I saw who the publisher is I knew this is going to be a good one.
I wonder if Jager version of dead island 2 is somewhere just waiting to be leaked. It will be interesting to look at it.
25:23 "Ah man! It means it finally topped their previous crown jewel, Ride to Hell Retribution!?"
I laughed at that far more than I should've.
What Happened?: X-Men: The Last Stand
Deep silver shouldn't had interfered with Techland. Dying Light could have been theirs!
Say what you want about the game, the teaser from 10 years ago is iconic
Deep Silver always feels like EAs younger snotty cousin and this doesn't help with that
Digimon Cyber Sleuth OST at the beginning caught me off guard, in a pleasant way. Only the best taste on this channel. ❤
man i'd love a noclip documentary about how they managed these god tier gore physics
The trailer for DI1 might've had literally 0 to do with the game, but it was still pretty awesome
Hey just a heads up, at 25:02 you used the wrong box art. 1-2 Switch came out in 2017, but I assume you were referencing "Everybody 1-2 Switch", the sequel that came out this year.
I'll never forget the day my sis and I played Dead Island on the PS3 together back when Dead Island 1 was relatively new if not brand new. We even tried to do online co-op as she owned the console herself iirc and tried to do that together. The moment the Dead Island 2 trailer dropped on youtube we were all rearin' to go and ready to pre-order (thankfully we did not lol).
For a bomb about to blow up it sure took a looong time!
@6:00 So Techland wanted to basically make Dying light before dying light was a thing, expand dead island story and make it a dope franchise and Deep silver said no😮😂
We need a Wha Happun? for Dragon’s Dogma.
That trailer for the first game is still one of the greatest trailers ever. The game was pretty fun but that trailer was a goddamn masterpiece
I really hope that this entire ordeal gave Deep Silver a well deserved slice of humble pie. There’s nothing that frustrates me more than money-counting executives with little game development experience setting the expectations for developers’ projects with unrealistic budgets and time frames. When they let the actual developers work at their most effective state, then the games they produce will turn out great.
Put countless hours into Dead Island 1 and completely forgot that this game existed until just now
It’s actually a lot of fun in my opinion.
Its pretty fun actually
It was kinda funny when I was calling people for their pre-orders because a lot of them forgot they even had pre-ordered the game. I don't blame anybody because some of their pre-orders were placed 10 years prior lmaoo
Wha Happun: SpongeBob Revenge of the Flying Dutchman
aka the
SpongeBob game that got someone blacklisted from the industry
The fact that BOTH Dead Island games had a decade long dev period speaks volumes of what Deep Silver are like.
I'm gunna wait for a sale for this one, I only wanna play it for the co-op so I can wait for it to drop
I guess it's almost time to talk about Dying Light 2? Maybe not as much dev hell as Dead Island 2 but I really thought it was going that direction after seeing the revolving door of people entering and exiting that project. I'm honestly surprised it reviewed well.
Considering how boring the game is, so am I.
I like how many projects have a trouble time changing to u4
And cd projket has said the cyberpunk sequel will move away from the red engine to unreal, can’t wait to see how that goes lmao. Not shitting on cyberpunk though that game is amazing in its current state.
It's a damn shame that Game Informer article is gone forever now. Fuck Gamestop
My head shot up at hearing Blake Hester's name. He's a great writer, and also co-hosts a podcast about "rotten" video games (think Manhunt and Kane and Lynch) with Jacob Geller called Something Rotten that has some really interesting discussions, that also got me to play games I would not otherwise have touched.
loving this game , I hope we see a DI3
The FLESH engine demo was so funny to me.
"Bad and naughty publishers get put in the LUNG WIGGLER."
There should be a what happened for Kingdom Hearts 3.
I agree!
You should do an update video on dead island 2 because it has some DLC now and did it help the game
Deep Silver brings in a consultant firm and give feedback to start from scratch. Deep Silver doesn't like their recommendation. Deep Silver brings in another consultant firm that says to start from scratch.
>me watching the decision on parkour zombie game: "Oh, I know where this is going."
Yet it couldn't prepare me for how absolutely more massive Dying Light is. Thay game really blew up.
I would LOVE to see an episode on Gollum, personally.
I haven't worked in the gaming industry, but I've done media work in the corporate industry, and it's crazy that the people with all the money and the power just say "Do this, and I want it by Monday" and it's Friday today. The execs really don't know what happens in development and it's sad to see people get screwed over and sacked because of greedy business decisions. In the design studio where I used to work, we would invite people to be a part of the design process, and get them to monitor what we do and we would ask for feedback, and most of them are so against it, and it became such a thing, that some higher ups allowed us more time to develop content because they got bored sitting and watching us do the work
I liked the game. I'd give it a 7.5/10. Considering it was in nearly a decade of development hell it's a miracle it turned out the way it did.
For real, the game had some good combat and the flesh system really made slicing a zombie up satisfying. Just wish the story was stronger and didn't end on a cliffhanger.
Oh Yager did Spec Ops the Line? That game is awesome
Very clever having the discussion of "development changing hands" playing over the cutscene where the gun changes hands five times.
That Dead Rising lobby music...... Good stuff
Matt with that digimon music ❤
I thought I was LOSING MY MIND. I was like what is this song, I know this song but I don’t know why. Checked the video desc for music sources and couldn’t find the ad music. Thank you for shouting this out. Matt’s editor(s) have pretty great taste.
The music list is missing Lively Cyber Detective from the Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth OST which is played during the sponsor announcement.
I just feel bad for Dambuster studios, between this and Homefront The Revolution, they CAN make good games, but they're always given the short end of the stick from publishers.
9:54 - Oh hey, the zombie from Lucio Fulci's Zombi! Nice to see he got a nice place in LA after all these years.
Dead Island 3 should take place in Hawaii next time.
Ngl I’ve never played some of the games in your episodes, but I enjoy hearing you talk shit about them
I still want to grab a copy of this, but hearing the song...I kinda want to replay Dead Island itself again, hahaha.
I thought Riptide was a dlc expansion until I saw it standalone at a goodwill
The Digimon Story menu music at the beginning almost gave me a stroke. Keep up the good work. Lol
man you need to tell me what happened with the last airbender movie
Amazed it ever came out, Nevermind its as good as it is. Its my game of the year so far
Lol
I have a similar sentiment. I'd give it a 7.5/10 so I enjoyed it. Shocked considering it was in development hell for nearly a decade.
@@-Down-D-Stairs- i absolutely loved it. One of the most satisfying combat systems ever
@@alexhobbs1208go cry about woke politics lol
I find it hilarious that the picture on this is identical to the one for your video on Dead Rising 4, but the guy is in worse condition
Would be interesting a What Happened Everybody 1-2 Switch
Please no, oh God, no...
Dead Island 2: a game that crawled through twelve miles of shit and came out clean on the other side.