Publisher Deep Silver announced today that Yager Development is no longer working on Dead Island 2.

“With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver has always been dedicated to delivering the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve. After careful consideration, today we announce the decision to part ways with development partner Yager. We will continue working towards bringing our vision of Dead Island 2 to life, and we will share further information at a later stage,” Deep Silver said in a statement through a spokesperson.

This comes as a shock to many since Yager had been working on the game for quite some time now. Red flags emerged, however, when it’s mid-2015 release was pushed all the way back into 2016 a couple of months ago.

Yager is best known most likely for developing 2012’s Spec Ops: The Line from 2K. They had taken over the Dead Island franchise from Techland, who developed the first Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide, after Techland parted ways with Deep Silver to do Dying Light for Warner Bros.

The premise behind Dead Island 2 is that the epidemic that ravaged the fictional island of Banoi in the first game now hits the California coast. Players will be tasked with traveling between Los Angeles and San Francisco while they try to survive the quarantine put in place by the US government.

There is no word yet as to who will replace Yager as the primary developer, or how this will affect Dead Island 2’s planned release for 2016.