- Dead Island 3 is in development at Dambuster Studios, targeting a Q1 or Q2 2028 release.
- Early production is underway, with work progressing on features, world design, characters, and narrative.
- The project follows Dead Island 2’s success, which sold over 4M copies after its 2023 launch.
Dead Island 3 is in development at Dambuster Studios and is targeting a release window in the first half of 2028, according to financial documents published this week. The documents, spotted by X user @bogorad222, name the project directly and state that development is “moving at pace.”
According to the filing, parts of Dead Island 3 are now in early production, including feature design, character design, world design, and narrative work.
The report lists a “current predicted release window” of Q1 or Q2 2028, placing the launch by the end of June 2028. Dambuster Studios is a UK-based developer owned by Plaion and operates internally under Deep Silver.
The documents also indicate that Dead Island 3 is now the studio’s primary focus. Once work on the remaining versions of Dead Island 2 is completed, Dambuster’s full development and QA teams are expected to transition to the new project. As of the end of March 2025, the studio employed 194 people.
Dead Island 3 Release Window and Development Details
Dambuster had previously hinted at a follow-up earlier this year without formally naming it; in a Steam post celebrating the 14 years of the franchise’s anniversary with over 20M players, the studio said, “Dambuster Studios are already carving out what comes next. For now, the details stay under wraps, the outbreak is far from over...”
Dead Island 3 follows the commercial success of Dead Island 2, which launched in April 2023 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC after a prolonged development cycle. First announced in 2014, the sequel moved between multiple developers before Dambuster took over in 2019. Despite the history, the game went on to sell more than 4M copies.
If the 2028 target holds, Dead Island 3 will arrive five years after its predecessor, marking a significantly shorter and more stable development window for the franchise. The project signals Deep Silver’s intent to build on Dead Island’s renewed momentum with a more streamlined production approach.
