No sequels, remakes, remasters or reboots of any kind are to be expected for the Dead Space franchise. Yes, we know: we reported on the possibility of a full on sequel not a long time ago, but it seems that’s something that was floated around to no avail.
The word comes from Insider Gaming, who heard from their sources within (Saudi-?) American publisher Electronic Arts that the legendary survival-horror franchise is currently “on ice” — commonly, this is an expression used in corporate settings to refer to something as “not being currently worked on in any way”.
Insider Gaming’s report supposedly comes from internal messaging applications EA uses within its work to communicate across several teams.
Dead Space was almost back, but it seems that’s not happening
Back in October, series creator and former EA dev Glen Schofield stated that, due to the success of the game’s 2023 remake of the original Dead Space, he was “making calls” in order to push for a Dead Space 4 — which, if greenlit, would be a a full on, new sequel on the mainline brand, not a spin-off or reboot, remake or remaster.
Not only that, but EA was recently sold to the Saudi Arabia Private Investment Fund (PIF), which sparked rumours that the series could make a comeback down the line (newfound money in the pockets + old, proven IP tends to be a good money maker).
Alas, it seems this will not be the case: Insider Gaming does not offer any additional details, but the page does raise the possibility of an IP sale to any interested party. According to a recent report from the New York Times, Saudi Arabia’s PIF is limiting its resource offerings and expenditures due to low cash flow — the paper states that the fund’s leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has called the situation a “financial distress”.
It is worth noting that EA has not given any reason for us to believe that it intends on selling the survival-horror brand. In fact, this is purely speculative at this point. But weirder things have happened in this industry for a lot less. So I wouldn’t write that off the table just yet.
