In a surprising announcement, Deep Silver has revealed that Yager Development, the studio famous for creating Spec Ops: The Line, 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," the publisher said in a statement. "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."

No reason for the split with Yager was given, nor is there any indication as to how this will impact the launch date. It's strictly speculation, but there may be some connection to the delay of Dead Island 2, which was originally slated to come out in the spring of 2015 but, in April, was pushed back to an even less-definite 2016.

Yager is also working on another project, spaceship combat sim Dreadnought, which is being published by Grey Box.

We've reached out to Deep Silver for more information, and will update if and when we receive a reply.