dead-space posts

In 2008 Electronic Arts released the first Dead Space game for the PC and we liked it. We liked it a lot. So we were happy to learn that the sequel, Dead Space 2, was also coming to the PC. However it looks like things may have changed. As part of EA's newly revealed schedule of upcoming games for their next fiscal year they announced that Dead Space 2 would be released in the first quarter of 2011 . . . but did not list the PC as one of its platforms.

Blue's News reports they heard back from an EA spokesperson who told them, "As of right now a PC sku is not in the plan". That's all they got out of the publisher so we have contacted EA for a more detailed explanation. We are hoping the PC port has just been pushed back rather than canceled.

We are smack dab in the middle of the holiday sale on Steam and as usual the PC game download site has some great deals that can be had for just one day only at some rock bottom prices. One of the best deals today is for the PopCap collection where you can get all 30 PopCap casual games on Steam for just $49.99. Compare that to the collection's usual $99.99 price and the $224.70 price if you purchases each game in the collection separately.

Other games on sale until noon Eastern time Monday include Dead Space for $10.19, Hearts of Iron III for just $7.49 and Zombie Driver and Day of Defeat: Source for $2.49 each.

Get ready for more gross looking aliens trying to kill and dismember you. While it's not exactly a shock, Electronic Arts has now finally and officially announced it is indeed developing Dead Space 2 for the PC and other platforms. The sequel to the acclaimed 2008 sci-fi survival horror game does not yet have a release date.

Developed once again by EA's Visceral Games dev studio (previously EA Redwood Shores) the sequel follows Isaac Clarke, the hero of the first game, as he once again battles the shape-shifting Necromorphs. Besides the Plasma Cutter, Clarke will have some new unnamed weapons to use against the aliens and will also deal with more zero-G environments. The press release promises that in addition to scary monsters, there will be "plot twists that will surprise you." Now that's scary.

Electronic Arts did a ton to promote their 2008 sci-fi survival horror game Dead Space. In addition to the game they released two prequel products in the form of a comic book mini-series and a direct-to-DVD animated film. In the end the game was both a critical and financial success so a sequel would seem inevitable.

Now a new Reuters story on the popularity of horror-themed games claims that EA has its sights on releasing Dead Space 2 sometime in 2010. This sounds pretty resonable to us. However G4TV reports that EA has called the Reuters article "speculative". Not a denial per se; just a way of saying, "We have made any official announcements yet."

"Our prices are so low, they are scary!" Hey it was too good to resist. Actually that's just what the Direct2Drive web site is doing right now as it has cut the prices on a number of their horror-themed (and other M-rated) PC games for download. Some of the games have been cut down to as low as $4.95. The sale prices end on Sunday:

The games priced at $4.95 include Stubbs The Zombie, The Path, Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines, Cold Fear and Downfall. In addition, BioShock, Damnnation and Far Cry 2 are priced at $9.95 and The Witcher and Dead Space get a price cut down to $19.95

It's not exactly a shock, but it does appear that Electronic Arts is moving forward on the sequel to their 2008 sci-fi survival horror game Dead Space. The latest evidence comes in the form of a LinkedIn job listing for EA's Visceral Games studio, stating that the game "is in the later stages of pre-production, ready for production in the next few months."

Dead Space apparently sold well enough that EA commissioned two more sequels be made according to a recent Variety article. However they will have to be made without one of the original game's leaders. Visceral Games' general manager Glen Schofield jumped ship a few months ago to join Activision.

[Via superannuation]

In a bit of a last minute San Diego Comic Con related announcement, Variety is reporting that a director has been signed for the upcoming adaptation of Dead Space, the recent sci-fi survival horror game from Electronic Arts. That director is D.J. Caruso who previously directed the movies Disturbia and Eagle Eye.

EA is still looking for a scriptwriter for the movie adaptation but once it selects a writer and script they are happy with they will begin pitching a Dead Space movie directly to the major film studios. EA already has a number of their game properties in some kind of film production including Mass Effect. In an odd aside, the article also claims that EA is "working on the second and third installments" of the game series.

It can be a cutthroat world in the games industry at time and it looks like a particular deal has been struck that has taken two of Electronic Arts' rising stars to move to arch-rival Activision. GameSpot is reporting through unnamed sources that Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, the general manager and COO, respectively, of EA's Visceral Studios, have defected to work for Activision in an all new studio that will be established in the San Fransisco Bay area.

Ironically the pair are leaving the studio just a few months after EA re-branded the team from the plain-jane EA Redwood Shores to Visceral Games. In part the name change was made to emphasis the studio's move to make more adult action games like last year's Dead Space and next year's Dante's Inferno that Schofield and Condrey helped to create. It's currently unknown what Activision will be calling its new dev studio.

Electronic Arts's Redwood Shores, CA studio has been cracking out titles for quite some time, ranging from The Godfather games to the recent Simpsons title. The studio recently launched the Dead Space survival horror series and that may have been part of the reason why EA decided to give the Redwood Shores studio its own unique name.

In a new press release, EA has announced that it will now refer to the Redwood Shores studio as Visceral Games. The studio's web site has already launched and in a message its general manager Glen Schofield states, "We are not abandoning our past but embracing the future. With an obsessive focus on excellence and a relentless commitment to intense action, Visceral Games is set to execute all future games at the quality, innovation and polish of Dead Space." The studio will also have a branch in Melbourne, Australia. It's currently developing the third person action game Dante's Inferno and two more unannounced titles are in the works.

The annual Toy Fair is underway in New York City and alongside the typical new and upcoming action figures shown at the show for things like Marvel and DC super heroes, Star Wars, G.I.Joe and the like, there are quite a few new action figures based on games.

Figures.com has images from the show floor on many of these toys, including new entries in the Halo series from McFarlane Toys and Gears of War from NECA. The latter company is also showing off a number of other upcoming figures from games like Dead Space and the upcoming Prototype (show above) and Dante's Infermo. We are still waiting to see some Team Fortress 2 action figures; we might actually buy them.