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Is Dead Space dead?

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DSgolf

Dead Space 3 is Dead Space by name only. We liked it a lot as an action game, but as Dead Space it just fell a little flat. It could have fallen even lower – as rumours have begun circulating that EA has canned the Dead Space franchise.

Speaking with Videogamer, a mysterious ninja source who’s apparently close to the matter has said that that Dead Space 4 has ben cancelled.

The game was reportedly in pre-production at visceral games, but the relatively poor retail performance of Dead Space 3 has meant that EA’s no longer interested in the franchise.

Visceral Montreal was believed to have been actively developing plotlines and creating prototypes for Dead Space 4. This saddens me. While Dead Space 3 may have been a misstep, I’ve been hoping the series might return to its scarier roots.

Why do you believe Dead Space 3 hasn’t performed in line with EA’s expectations? Is it the watered down action gameplay? The fright-reducing shoehorned co-operative gameplay? The overbearing use of microtransactions?

Perhaps the game’s actually done just fine, but EA wants absolutely every single game to be a huge income-generating profit machine, and Dead Space 3 – which topped the sales charts when it was released – just didn’t make enough damned money to keep executives swimming in cash?

so there might not be any more Dead Space. Instead, we get more Army of Two.

Last Updated: March 5, 2013

19 Comments

  1. GTO

    March 5, 2013 at 15:35

    Not surprising, that said they needed 5 million sales for it to be worthwhile. Anytime that you need that much for it to be worth doing you know most of the time it is going to fall short.

    Reply

  2. fred

    March 5, 2013 at 15:45

    We still have The Last of Us to look forward to , no worries , i’ll spend my money on that.

    Reply

  3. Mathias

    March 5, 2013 at 16:35

    Hopefully. And now that Ubi and EA are in bed together, why not killing off Assassin’s Creed as well? New IPs, devs. New IPs

    Reply

  4. Darth_Clericus_The_Ultimate

    March 5, 2013 at 16:43

    Header win Geoff!!
    Would be sad to see this franchise go, but judging from the last game maybe its a good thing.
    YOU EITHER DIE A HERO OR LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO SEE YOURSELF BECOME THE VILLIAN.

    Reply

  5. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    March 5, 2013 at 17:18

    Yeah, it did fine. The problem is that game companies don’t know how to budget initially for sales targets.

    What do I mean? Well let me tell you.

    When they develop games they don’t go in with a specific budget in mind (or do but never stick to it) They keep inflating the production cost over and over and over while creating the game because they believe it is needed to develop the game. The more money you throw at something the better right? Wrong. In the end you get something that cost more to make than some of the biggest blockbuster films and now you need enough copies to sell not only to cover costs but then to turn a profit as well. The problem is the gaming community pool is only so big. The larger the production costs, the lower your profit margins. No matter how good your game.

    The point?

    Bring down production costs. Stop stressing about social integration experts and graphics that require the power of Chernobyl to run at max. Stop worrying about having server capacity and crap like that to run your SINGLE PLAYER CENTRIC games. Stop forcing online crap in the community. Some of us want seclusion. Stop spending all that money on garbage online crap.

    Stick to your script experts and voice actors and guys who can create awesome art for your games (awesome art does NOT equal next-gen or PC melting graphics by the way) andyou will be able to make an amazing game even if the graphics aren’t constantly pushing boundaries.
    Get the story right. Get the atmosphere right and you got a winner, and you won’t even need a budget that would be able to build a Death Star ten times over.

    Reply

    • Wtf101

      March 5, 2013 at 21:18

      Hear Hear!

      Reply

  6. Henk Potgieter

    March 5, 2013 at 17:44

    Thank fuck , EA managed to Ruin DS3.

    Reply

  7. DaxterZA

    March 5, 2013 at 17:49

    Im sorry, but Dead Space 3 was NOT a “misstep”, it was an awesome game, and I hope these rumors arent true, because Dead Space is really, to me, one of the better game franchises out there!

    Reply

    • Sir Captain Rincethis

      March 6, 2013 at 09:54

      A thumbs up to you. OVG and I spent 7 hours playing it last Saturday. A hell of a load of fun. As I ranted above, it isn’t like the first 2, but one need to adapt. Metallica Kill’em’All was nothing like Black/Load, they adapted, and brought with them a whole load of new fans. It’s called growing me thinks 🙂

      Reply

      • DaxterZA

        March 6, 2013 at 10:29

        What bothers me the most is that people say they hate Dead Space 3 because its not scary. That is such a stupid reason to dislike a game…

        DS3 is a fun game, and isnt that why games were invented, to give people a fun time??

        Its sad though, games used to be about having fun and relaxing while playing through an awesome story.. now if a game has a fantastic story but not the best graphics, not exactly like the previous titles or slightly repetitive its a bad game, but a game with fuck all story, milked dry, tasteless but with beautiful graphics… LOOK OUT! Its the game of the year award.. what the hell…

        Reply

        • Sir Captain Rincethis

          March 6, 2013 at 10:36

          You mention the not-to-be-mention end of last year area I’ve lobotomised from my brain with a spoon… But yes. You produce shovelware, like COD etc, and people go fucking mental for it. No story, a 6 hour champaign? Why, YES Please MOAR! You offer a 15 hour experience, brilliant character development, and an amazing world? Nah, it’s not what the other 2 were. Yeah, Return of the Jedi wasn’t what the first two were, but it was fucking awesome nonetheless!

          Reply

          • DaxterZA

            March 6, 2013 at 10:45

            Agree with you.

            Yes COD is getting really shit, but the Singleplayer is definitely not its main attraction, its the Multiplayer. And I hate to admit it, but COD does have good storylines in their Singleplayer, Black Ops 2 did actually surprise me with a really good story! But then again, its way to short!

            And then I need to mention Battlefield 3’s SP, it was a 5 hour waste of time, USA vs Russia bullshit…

            In the end the problem is that developers focus too much on Multiplayer, especially COD and BF.

            We need more games like Dead Space, Far Cry, Tomb Raider (Which is just amazing!), Mass Effect and Assassins Creed. (There are more but not going to mention them)

            People are bashing and giving low ratings to these awesome games and that is why developers are giving up on them!

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            March 6, 2013 at 10:51

            Sorry, should have clarified on COD, I meant people focus too much on the multiplayer. It seems to just be tacked on these days (not COD, that is designed for it). I love being able to share a story, like DS3, Halo 4, Borderlands with some mates. But include a STORY, you know? Why is it the developers think we want microtransactions? Shit, I was drunk on Saturday and have money in my xboxlive account, I was NOT tempted, even in that state to waste it on a new gun. All I can say is I am looking forward to this weekend, my birthday weekend, all of Sat will be necromorph killing with my boet!

          • DaxterZA

            March 6, 2013 at 10:54

            The micro transactions are stupid IMO, but it helps some people yes.

            Dead Space 3 is surprisingly fun with the Co-Op, but I finished it on SP first just to keep tradition, haha.

  8. Banana Jim

    March 5, 2013 at 18:20

    I have no opinion on the matter, what does the sales say? Quick someone… graph the sales!

    Reply

  9. CaptainNemo42

    March 5, 2013 at 20:25

    This after they changed all these things by removing the real charm of the original and adding bro-op to lure the shooter fans away from CoD. Everybody should know you not gonna get those people away from the FPS games. Funny how some stuff comes back and bites you in the ass.

    EA only have themselves to blame if they are not happy with the sales.

    Reply

  10. umar bastra

    March 6, 2013 at 07:52

    So SAD to see this, Dead Space was one of the better franchises out there with DS2 being a superb combination of horror, survival, action and actually STORY … DS3 did not need co-op, DS3 did not need micro transactions, DS3 did not need more action, GOD DS3 DID NOT NEED HUMAN ENEMIES!!!, the setting was perfect and more ‘open’ … they needed to tighten the fear factor and anxiety inducing atmosphere. the gun modifying aspect was really fun, but should not have been on such a compulsive level, but that was due to the inclusion of microtransaction. VERY SAD by this …. let me go replay DS2 and forget I read this.

    Reply

  11. Sir Captain Rincethis

    March 6, 2013 at 09:50

    Fuck that. While I wholeheartedly agree Dead Space 3 was not Dead Space 1/2 it is still a damn fun game. Just floating in space kicked ass. So because it didn’t pull in as much as a CoD/BOP544434231.4 it gets canned? Screw you EA. They could quite have easily have learnt from this mistake and gone back to their roots. Or do we need to wait 15 years like Lara Croft before EA launches a reboot of Dead Space on the Valve-PS17/Xbox666? Sad panda.

    Reply

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