dead-space posts

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.

Last week the Writers Guild of America nominated several games, mostly PC titles, for the game writing category in their annual awards. This week its the members of the Visual Effects Society who are handing out nominations for two game related categories in their annual awards.

The categories are for best real time effects and also for best pre-rendered effects. Five out of the six spots in the categories went to games published by Electronic Arts although we have to think Blizzard is the front runner for the pre-rendered cinematic award for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. The awards ceremony will be held on Feb. 21.

Outstanding Real Time Visuals in a Video Game
Crysis Warhead
Zoltan Pocza, Gabor Mogyorosi, Tamas Schlagl
Dead Space
Ian Milham, Ben Wanat, Christopher Stone
Need For Speed Undercover
Henry LaBounta, Steve Barcia, Dave Taylor, Carl Jarrett

Outstanding Pre-Rendered Visuals in a Video Game
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Chrono-Lab, Empire and Allied Scenes
Richard Taylor, Benjamin Hopkins, KaTai Tang, Mical Pedriana
Need For Speed Undercover - Cinematics
Henry LaBounta, Steve Barcia, Dave Taylor, Mark Raham
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Intro Cinematic
Jeff Chamberlain, Phillip Hillenbrand

Valve has brought back their regular weekend sale to their Steam service this week with something of an old school flavor. They have the entire X-Com franchise (five games in all) on sale this weekend only for just $4.99. That's a 66 percent savings from the pack's normal $14.99 price tag.

Also during the past week Steam has added number of games that were released in retail stores in the fall of 2008. These include EA's Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 and Dead Space along with Codemasters' Rise of the Argonauts and Activision's Quantum of Solace. They are all full price but hey, at least you won't have to deal with EA's DRM issues.

We named Electronic Arts sci-fi survival horror title Dead Space the best PC action game of 2008. If you also enjoyed the game you might be interested to know that the comic book web site Newsarama has posted up the entire first issue of the Dead Space comic book mini-series for free.

Published last year before the game was released the six-issue mini-series from Image Comics serves as a prequel to the game's storyline so if you have yet to play the game you might want to hold off until you do so before you read the comic. The entire mini-series has now been collected in a hardcover collection and is now on sale.