Article: Report: Dead Space 4 Cancelled in Wake of Poor Sales of Dead Space 3 (UPDATE)

[Shawn Zipay]

Though not official by any stretch of the imagination, word around the Net today says that EA has cancelled plans for Dead Space 4 following poor sales of Dead Space 3. An anonymous source told Videogamer.com that the game was in pre-production at Visceral Games but has been cancelled once it was revealed that Dead Space 3 failed to meet sales goals.

Even worse, it's said that EA informed the studio of this last month and also detailed some "restructuring" that may impact Visceral Games. Whether or not the extent of this restructuring was wrapped up with the closure of Visceral Montreal remains to be seen.

As well as discussing Dead Space 4's alleged cancellation, our source also gave us further insight into Dead Space 3's development, telling us that the game was almost cancelled partway through its development, and saw continuous cuts made to its budget throughout production.

Weapon-specific ammo was allegedly switched for generic ammo late in development, too, as a method for shoehorning in the game's controversial micro-transactions.

EA also advised Visceral that Dead Space 3 needed to appeal to a wider audience than the series' previous two titles, our source added, and the studio was reportedly told to focus on action over horror in an effort to make the game feel more like BioWare's Mass Effect.

EA, what are you doing? Stop it.

[K-16]

As a reminder, please do not trust any rumor started by Videogamer.com. This has been your friendly reminder. Have a nice day. (Thanks for the fast updates to get the truth of the non-existent situation.)