EA: We Want Dead Space 3 to Appeal to "Broad Audience"

By Matt Mann / June 15, 2012

EA, wanting to destroy everything that is good in the industry, has decided that because Dead Space 1 and 2 did not sell 40 million copies each, the next game in the franchise needs to reach a more "broad audience". Dead Space 1 was lauded for being an actual horror game with action adventure elements, while Dead Space 2 was still considered a very good game leaned more towards action adventure. But now it seems EA wants to take the series further away from its' horror roots:

"What we've tried to do with each instalment is tell a different story about Isaac but at the same time bring in new features and ways to turn the game into a more connected experience. "... so we embraced idea and we tried to open up the accessibility of the IP a little bit by adding a little bit more action, but not undermining the horror. We can't not be a horror game because that's what Dead Space is." "We're very self aware of that - we listen to the fans and we hear them. We're going to be releasing more assets over the coming months that show you how deep the horror is. It's definitely not getting away from gore or horror, but at the same time it's opening up to a larger audience by adding some elements."

EA Labels president Frank Gibeau then went on to discuss something that should worry Dead Space fans even more. Apparently Gibeau and EA have been inspired by the movie Prometheus on how to appeal to larger audiences. Wow, I am not going to say Prometheus was a bad movie, but if you want to get the idea that Dead Space 3 will still be horror based this was the last movie that you want to compare it to. That is actually the reverse analogy you want to make, the Aliens franchise started off very scary and got less so over time culminating in Prometheus which was not a horror film in the least. Finally Gibeau goes on to try and justify why they need to move the franchise to a more broad audience:

"In general we're thinking about how we make this a more broadly appealing franchise, because ultimately you need to get to audience sizes of around five million to really continue to invest in an IP like Dead Space. "Anything less than that and it becomes quite difficult financially given how expensive it is to make games and market them. "We feel good about that growth but we have to be very paranoid about making sure we don't change the experience so much that we lose the fanbase."

Look I will be honest I saw the E3 Dead Space trailer and maybe this is just me, but that looked like a scene out of Gears of War not Dead Space. EA wonders why people people hate them, hell IGN just wrote an article two days ago asking why people hate EA, well here is your answer. A game franchise that started out as one thing has turned into something else because EA needs to sell more copies. Yes I know EA said they are still going to focus on horror in the Dead Space but at this point how can you trust them, especially after what they have done to my formally favorite developer BioWare. They did the exact same thing to both Mass Effect and Dragon Age, i.e. try and reach a broader audience and look how that has turned out. Let me ask all of you Dead Space fans out their, are you worried about Dead Space 3 or do you think that co-op will not affect the overall outcome of the game?