Last year’s remake of Dead Space proved a critical hit, reviving the beloved space horror series after it had been left fallow for ten years. However, despite being January 2023’s second-biggest selling game (behind Modern Warfare II), this seemingly wasn’t enough success to satisfy EA, and it was reported in April of this year that the studio had shelved a remake of Dead Space 2, though EA then denied that one had ever been in the works. We’ve now found out that an attempt by the original creators to pitch Dead Space 4 earlier this year was immediately rejected by EA.
In a recent interview (well, it was three weeks ago, but we’re all just noticing now), three members of the original Dead Space team—Glen Schofield, Christopher Stone and Bret Robbins—spoke to YouTuber Dan Allen (thanks VG247) about the franchise, during which it was revealed that earlier this year the trio wanted to pitch a fourth entry in the space-based scare ‘em up to IP owners EA. But it seems like there wasn’t even room to try.
As AAA games reach budgets of hundreds of millions, sales requirements are becoming close to impossible for all but the biggest-name franchises. Dead Space, while once well-known and well-regarded, had been left untouched for a decade before the remake, and clearly didn’t perform to EA’s expectations last year—as such, any hopes that internal studio EA Motive would continue to remake the series went out the window. But what if the game’s original executive producer, creative director and animation director all rocked up, and said they had the best ideas for making a brand new one?
“We’re not interested right now, we appreciate it, blah blah blah,” Schofield said of EA’s response. All three looking dejected, they made clear how hopeless it had proven to be.
“We respected their opinion,” continued Schofield, with resigned acceptance. “They know their numbers and what they have to ship.”
“The industry’s in a weird place right now,” interjected Christopher Stone. “People are really hesitant to take chances on things.”
But both Stone and Schofield made it clear how much they want to make a Dead Space 4. “We got some ideas!” said Schofield, coming to life in the moment.
Original creative director Bret Robbins did, admittedly, sit very quietly throughout this part of the discussion. His development studio, Ascendant Studios, has had its own rough time with EA and sales more recently. 2023’s $100-million flop, Immortals of Aveum, saw half the studio laid off, and then the remaining company reportedly furloughed, before merging forces with Dan Houser’s Absurd Ventures for an unannounced project in September. He’s clearly very busy, and likely not about to jump ship, even if EA had bitten.
Dead Space creator Glen Schofield went on to co-found Sledgehammer Games and developed many Call of Duty entries, before forming Striking Distance in 2019 which released…another game that failed to meet sales expectations, The Callisto Protocol. Since then, Schofield appears to have been working freelance.
Stone joined VOID Interactive a few months back, the team which released last year’s Ready or Not, a game Kotaku described as “effective enough to disturb but too shallow not to descend into farce, or worse, Blue Lives Matter cosplay with fascist overtones and alt-right dog whistles.” He is, however, working with the team on “new projects.”
Dead Space, meanwhile, is exercising nominative determinism. It doesn’t seem likely we’ll see any more games in the franchise for a good while, unless of course it’s people making excellent demakes. And the ongoing story of “didn’t meet sales expectations” looks likely to spread into 2025.
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