Dead Island has sold 5,000,000 copies. By my math that's like, a gillion double-dead zombies. I don't know how many severed limbs that would be. All of them? Obviously Deep Silver is very pleased so much so that they sent out a press release patting themselves on the back. I would too. Dead Island is a damn fine cooperative zombie survival game. It earned our Editor's Choice award in our Co-Op Review.
So what does this mean to you? It means you can expect more great games from Deep Silver, whose parent company, Koch Media, recently acquired the Saints Row and Metro franchises in the THQ bankruptcy fallout. The popularity of the Dead Island name and the new license acquisitions has made Deep Silver a much bigger player in the industry. The CEO of Koch Media, Klemens Kundratitiz, had a few choice words concerning the success of the brand:
While others focus on ever-increasing development budgets and driving brand messages via ballooning marketing expenditures, Deep Silver stands for hitting the zeitgeist, innovation and fresh gameplay. Dead Island has an incredibly active and enthusiastic community, and we are thrilled to welcome the five millionth player to the world of Banoi. This once again proves that venturing into new waters in terms of games publishing does matter for success and that even at the end of a console cycle new IPs can be created and nurtured into lasting franchises.
Nice. I like a little bravado. Less marketing, more awesome. Of course, some sales had to come from interest sparked by the insanely popular trailer that had little to nothing to do with the actual game, but that's neither here nor there. You only need one video if it's good enough.
The Dead Island saga continues with Dead Island Riptide. The four survivors will find themselves on a new tropical island called Palanai. The flooded island will have new missions, new zombie mutations, new cooperative hub defense missions, and a new playable character.
Dead Island Riptide supports four player online co-op. It will launch on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on April 26.