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The key creatives behind Dead Space have revealed that earlier this year they tried to interest Electronic Arts in Dead Space 4, but the publisher took a pass. The 2008 game, developed by Visceral Games and directed by Glen Schofield, is an action-horror classic and inspired an excellent remake by Motive Studios released last year. It also spawned two Visceral-developed sequels, as well as The Callisto Protocol (a spiritual successor, also directed by Schofield).
The remake in particular made it seem like EA might have plans to return to Dead Space, but sadly it sounds like that’s not the case. Schofield sat for an interview alongside Dead Space’s creative director Bret Robbins and animation director Christopher Stone on the Dan Allen Gaming Podcast (spotted by PCGN), discussing Dead Space generally, and near the end thoughts turned to a possible future for the series.
“We tried actually, the three of us,” says Schofield. “Dead Space 4. They said no. We’re talking this year [we pitched it]. We didn’t go too deep. They just said ‘We’re not interested right now, we appreciate it blah blah blah.’ And we know who to talk to, so we didn’t take it any further, and we respected their opinion, they know their numbers and what they have to ship.”
Schofield says the group “have some ideas” for where the fourth game will go, with Dead Space 3 having ended on something of a cliffhanger: Spoiler alert, but the third and thus far final entry ends with co-protagonists Isaac Clarke and John Carver crashing into a moon, their fate left ambiguous. Given that Isaac has rather an outstanding track record of surviving apparent death, I somehow doubt the crash has done for either of them.
“It’s a weird time in the industry right now,” says Stone. “People are really hesitant to take chances on things. So, take it with a grain of salt. Who knows, maybe one day. I think we’d all love to do it. I’d make a Dead Space 4. I’m not saying anything about my current gig [multiplayer shooter Ready or Not]. I’m just saying I would make a Dead Space 4.”
For his part, Schofield’s currently trying to get a smaller project funded (“it’s pretty special to me”), having left Striking Distance Studios after the release of The Callisto Protocol. And it may well be that this is the game that really gave EA the heebie-jeebies about a Dead Space continuation because, while it was a decent enough action-horror experience, it fell far short of publisher Krafton’s rather absurd sales expectations.
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Kurt Indovina
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