Dead Island ships 1 million

Dead Island may not benefit from a widely known developer or the deep pockets of a massive publisher, but that isn't stopping the zombie-infused title from posting impressive first-week sales figures. Deep Silver announced today that the Techland-developed survival horror action game has shipped more than 1 million units to North American retailers within its first week of availability.

Deep Silver expects worldwide shipment figures to hit 2 million units by the end of this week. Those predictions are due in part to Dead Island's top-selling position in foreign markets such as the UK and France, as well as the game's No. 1 chart slot on Valve's digital distribution platform Steam. The game has also seen headline-grabbing controversy in the form of sexist content embedded in the game's development code.

Set on a secluded resort, Dead Island tells the brutal story of everyday civilians caught up in a zombie apocalypse. Gamers can choose among four character classes, which break down into the leader, tank, jack-of-all-trades, and assassin archetypes. Every single character starts out the same way--suddenly attacked by zombies at the island's hotel, knocked out, and dragged to a nearby pool house converted to a shelter.

Dead Island is available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. For more information, check out GameSpot's review.