EA deny that Dead Space 2 remake was in development before being shelved due to poor sales of first game

Update: EA have now denied Grubb’s claims that the Dead Space 2 remake was in development before being effectively cancelled, telling IGN: “We don’t normally comment on rumors but there is no validity to this story.” That report adds that the sequel wasn’t considered for development to begin with, despite the first remake having performed well in EA’s eyes, according to a source.

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A remake of Dead Space 2 – following last year’s return of the original sci-fi survival-horror game – was reportedly in the works at EA, but has since been halted after the first game suffered underwhelming sales.

That’s the apparent news from fount of industry gossip Jeff Grubb, who claimed during a recent episode of Giant Bomb’s Game Mess Mornings that developers EA Motive “were working on Dead Space 2” – reaching the pre-production phase for a remake of the 2011 sequel – before shelving it indefinitely.

That decision apparently came on the back of “lacklustre sales” for the Dead Space remake, despite its critical acclaim.

“They were working on it. They were working on Dead Space 2, and they are no longer working on it,” Grubb said. “‘It is on the shelf because the first game had lacklustre sales,’ is how it was phrased to me. So if you were looking forward to a Dead Space 2, it’s bad news. It straight-up is just bad news.

“Does this mean it never happens? I don’t know if that’s the case. But as it stands right now, they were working on it. It was in the concepting phase, I believe. It was definitely pre-production. And now that work has been put on the shelf.”

The shelving of a Dead Space 2 remake comes as at least part of Motive shifts to working on the Battlefield series to follow the end of latest instalment 2042, while the rest of the studio work on their Iron Man game. According to Grubb, that pair of games will be the sole focus of the developers as they become a two-project team.

EA issued a survey last year shortly after the Dead Space remake landed, seemingly probing whether players would be interested in a remake of its excellent sequel – one of the best horror games ever made, for my money – and its not-quite-as-excellent threequel, which divisively tipped the scales even further in the direction of action over suspense, with added co-op multiplayer. Presumably the response wasn’t quite enough to convince the publisher.