Dead Space underwent the remake treatment in 2023, with EA’s Motive piecing together a bold rebuild of the game that started it all, but the series has stood silent since. It has been more than 13 years since the last new game in the franchise surfaced, but recently, former Dead Space writer and producer Chuck Beaver (his real name) suggested we’ll never see another one.
In his words, it’s because the gaming world has moved on and wants something totally different from what Dead Space 4 could offer the market.
Will We Ever See a New Dead Space Game?
In a recent episode of the FRVR Podcast, Chuck Beaver (I love that name) sat down to talk about his work on Dead Space. He was a writer and producer on the series back in the day, when single-player games were the talk of the town. Now, it’s all about multiplayer, live-service games, which are able to keep delivering for years and years with new updates and content drops.
That’s what Beaver alluded to when talking about the potential future of the franchise, a chat that ultimately ended with a sour take.
He said that Dead Space 4 probably wouldn’t happen because, in today’s market, it wouldn’t sell enough to recoup the costs of development. It would need to sell ‘over 10 million copies’, and that’s not likely.
He explained:
You know, companies now are looking for the next Fortnite. They need something that is a perennial moneymaker… something like a single-player package game with no live-service offering that’s like it’s just a dinosaur fossil of a business model.
(Thanks to IGN for the spot)
Beaver admitted that Dead Space had a fair run, pushing to the point of becoming a rounded trilogy, even if fans weren’t entirely happy with how the story wrapped up in Dead Space 3.
Talking further about the numbers, Beaver said:
Horror games have a bit of a ceiling, you know, and I think the number back in Frank Gibeau’s day was five million units to keep going on Dead Space. I think the number is like 15 million units now, given the cost of things.
There’s definitely interest in the Dead Space series, given the status the game has as a cult classic of sorts, but, unfortunately, money talks.
Would you want another major Dead Space game? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the claim that Ezio Auditore is coming back in Assassin’s Creed Hexe
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Comments