Techland was originally set to develop Dead Island 2, but instead they decided to focus on developing Dying Light with Warner Bros. Deep Silver went looking for a developer until Yager pitched the game to Deep Silver in Summer 2012 and got the deal. As announced at Sony's E3 2014 media briefing, Dead Island 2 will be more vibrant than its predecessors.The game is scheduled for a Spring 2015 release.

Several months after the events in Dead Island, the United States military has put California under a full quarantine restricted zone due to a new zombie outbreak.

Dead Island 2features a new massive world. The game takes place in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and an undisclosed third location in California, unlike the first game which was set on a fictional island off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The game's combat has different mechanics than Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide, being much more brutal and featuring deadlier, but more fragile zombies. Dead Island 2 also includes several features from its predecessors, such as the Rage system, which gives the player a temporary boost, and the weapon combining system.