A report has claimed there were plans for an entirely newDead Spacegame floating around Motive Studio, but publisher EA never gave the greenlight.
On April 10, Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb saidaDead Space 2remake had been shelved, but EA swiftly denied this, saying there was “no validity” to Grubb’s claims. A follow-up report byBloomberg, however, says there was at least interest in continuing the series at Motive, which was responsible for remaking theoriginalDead Space.
In fact, according to Bloomberg’s sources, rather than remakeDead Space 2, a small team within Motive spent a few months brainstorming ideas for an entirely new entry in the series. Whether this would’ve been a properDead Space 4or something else isn’t known, but Motive’s plans didn’t get very far. This is becausetheDead Spaceremake, which launched in January 2023, failed to meet EA’s sales expectations; something Grubb also claimed to be the case. As a result, EA decided to shelve the whole series that spring.
What makes this extra depressing is that early sales figures for the remake painted a positive picture. According to data from the NPD (viaVentureBeat),Dead Spacewas among the best-selling games in the U.S. that January, only being outsold by the 2022Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In the U.K.,Dead Spacewas at the top of the physical sales charts, thoughGamesIndustry.biznoted it had sold less than half of whatThe Callisto Protocol(a similar horror game fromDead Space‘s original creator Glen Schofield) managed in its first week.
Regardless, this marks the second time EA has putDead Spaceon ice, having done it once before when 2013’sDead Space 3also missed the company’s sales expectations. The rave reviews for the remake from critics and fans suggested the series had a new future, but it seems Isaac Clarke’s adventures won’t be continuing any time soon. After all, Motive is currently busy withits Iron Man game, and it now has a separate teamassisting with theBattlefieldseries.
