Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest ended yesterday with a bit of a plop. There were some interesting announcements, including a June 16 release date for TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, but The Geoffening was mostly overshadowed by the smaller Day of the Devs presentation that immediately followed. Still, Keigh3 — or whatever we’re calling it — had one reveal that was both confusing and hilarious. It was for Coffee Stain Studios’ Goat Simulator 3, which recreated a zombified Dead Island 2 trailer to quite literally troll everyone watching the broadcast. Again.
Originally released in April 2014, Goat Simulator is a wacky, third-person, physics-based action game where you control a goat and wreak havoc on the denizens of the game’s world. It’s bonkers in the best way possible: a meme game that lets you stretch the goat’s limbs or strap a jetpack to its back or any number of other stupidly insane shenanigans. The game’s been ported to just about every console but hadn’t received a direct sequel until Hot Geoff Summer, where Coffee Stain skipped a second entry for Goat Simulator 3.
The world premiere trailer for Goat Simulator 3 — seriously, what happened to Goat Simulator 2? — opened with Geoff standing on a digitised beach, saying this is a “sequel we’ve all been anticipating for a long time.” Before getting to the reveal, he made a few more misdirecting statements, claiming we “don’t want to get bitten” and that we finally have an update after “many years of rumours.” Geoff then cut to the game’s trailer, which showed a runner in all white taking a brisk jog on a very sunny boardwalk. He turned up his music and stretched before starting. He pointed to a rollerblading woman, who gave him the thumbs down before getting headbutted by a goat. He even continued running, totally oblivious to the mayhem around him.
Like, come on. This is the Dead Island 2 trailer from hella long ago. In case you forgot, Deep Silver revealed the highly anticipated zombie survival sequel during Sony’s E3 2014 presentation. The trailer is much the same, with a runner in all white jogging on what appears to be California’s Santa Monica Pier. He’s clearly been bitten by a zombie and chooses to spend his final moments running until the infection catches up to him. The trailer ends with the runner jogging alongside a zombie horde before getting splattered.
Folks regrettably fell for Goat Simulator 3‘s trolling. As the Summer Game Fest livestream was happening, many took to social media to express excitement at the thought of Dead Island 2 finally making a comeback after nearly a decade of absence only for that hype to devolve into dismay. Some praised Coffee Stain Studios for the “godlike” bait-and-switch, while others were very disappointed to learn it wasn’t Dead Island 2.
It’s not dead island 2, omg. It’s Goat Simulator.
LOL
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) June 9, 2022
Kotaku reached out to Coffee Stain and Deep Silver for comment.
This ain’t Coffee Stain Studios’ first time copying a Dead Island trailer either. When Goat Simulator was first released, the developer dropped a launch video that parodied the OG Dead Island’s announcement trailer. It featured slow-motion gameplay footage of a goat crashing through a building after being catapulted from an exploding gas station. It seems to me that Coffee Stain isn’t just playing us but also Deep Silver, since Dead Island 2‘s development has been so precarious it’s switched studios a few times already. Deep Silver has been relatively quiet regarding the long-awaited zombie survival game, so maybe Coffee Stain is equally curious about it. Apparently, Dead Island 2’s still in development. Maybe.
Goat Simulator 3 launches on PC, PlayStation consoles, and Xbox Series systems this fall. Sadly, I can’t say the same thing about Dead Island 2.
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