Dead Space 4 might not happen - Visceral dead?

[Hendo]

http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/dead_space_3/news/dead_space_4_canned_series_in_trouble_following_poor_sales_of_dead_space_3.html

Development on next Dead Space title terminated after DS3 fails to meet sales targets, VideoGamer.com source claims.

EA has ceased development on Dead Space 4 and effectively axed the series following lower than anticipated sales of Dead Space 3, VideoGamer.com has learned.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source familiar with the unannounced project told VideoGamer.com that Dead Space 4 had been in pre-production at Visceral Games, with a small team at Visceral Montreal allegedly tasked with developing prototypes and mock-ups for the title, and collaborating on ideas for the game's narrative.

However, the project was cancelled after Dead Space 3 failed to meet its sales targets, our source claims, telling us that EA executives visited Visceral Montreal last month to inform staff that the project had been terminated and announce details of the company's restructuring.

Visceral Montreal is rumoured to have closed following the restructuring.

Though EA had yet to announce Dead Space 4, Dead Space 3's cliffhanger ending suggested that a fourth game had been planned by the publisher.

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.

Our source's comments tally with those made previously by EA.

Last year, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau suggested that Dead Space 3 would need to sell around five million copies in order for the series to survive.

"In general we're thinking about how we make this a more broadly appealing franchise," Gibeau told CVG, "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."

Though sales figures for the game have yet to be officially released, the game's first week sales in the UK were down 26.6 per cent on the game's predecessor Dead Space 2.

In the weeks following its release, Dead Space 3 has gradually slipped further down the charts. The game currently sits at no.8, placing behind last year's Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Far Cry 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

EA announced plans to restructure its Los Angeles and Montreal studios in February, stating that though "many employees are being retrained for new positions... a small number will be released".

A former Visceral Montreal employee claims to have told Game Informer that "the entire studio has been laid off".

EA told VideoGamer.com that it does not comment on rumour or speculation when contacted about Dead Space 4's alleged cancellation.

[wholehole]

I wonder if EA will ever realise that games never do well when they stick their oar in too much. If they just left the developers to follow their original vision and carry it out without the constant prodding and poking they'd have far more sales on their hands.

[DANGERMAN]

if it's true it is a bit odd. I know we've kind of got to the point where one failure means people lose their jobs, but my understanding was that it had sold fine, and was promising for future games. If you don't like their work on Dead Space 3 then put them on something else rather than try to scrap together another good team

[HandsomeDead]

What EA don't realise is homogenising all of their games to offer similar experiences won't work for all games. What worked for Mass Effect won't necessarily work for Dead Space.

They're are not playing to each of their games' strengths but trying to make the as broad as possible, and in the process making them for no-one.

[Sly Reflex]

I'd like to think this is a product of people protesting about them shoehorning microtransactions in where they weren't needed or wanted.

[Hendo]

The rather worrying thing is.....

They put micro transactions in first and foremost to make money. You would think that this is either seen as extra income or that this means the game can sell fewer copies because it will recoup some from a minority of people buying in-game items.

That this wasn't enough to keep the series or studio going is insane - it's not like it completely bombed!

There's a lot that EA do right but there's maybe more that they do wrong right now - most off-putting to me is the online pass in every game yet that game's servers will probably get turned off in a year or two. That seems insanely wrong.

Also @Sly, that's the main reason I haven't jumped in to buy it for a while.

[Hendo]

Some twitter talk going round saying this is false, hopefully will be cleared up soon.

[retroed]

Yep, it's all a load of bollocks.

www.mcvuk.com/news/read/dead-space-4-canned-as-ea-axes-series-report/0111847

[DANGERMAN]

well I think someone in this thread owes EA an apology

[Sly Reflex]

There will be a dead space on next gen. I'll eat all your hats if there isn't within 3 years.

I'm going to start wearing a hard hat.

[wholehole]

So I guess we can view this as an announcement of the next game in a roundabout way.

Still, DOWN WITH EA! They're the worst etc.

[Bob]

Has anyone that completed the first two Dead Space games been forced to use microtransactions in the third game because it is the only way you could progress? If not then isn't this a pretty successful use of the system?

This question of course is asked on from the point of view that microtransactions aren't inherently bad.

[Sly Reflex]

They altered the game by design to put microtransactions in. That's a bad thing no matter which way you cut it.

[Uncle Dokuro]

Rumor: EA closes Bioware San Francisco

The scuttlebutt is that BioWare San Francisco has closed up shop.

According to a source from the studio, Electronic Arts thought it was “too expensive” to keep the developer running.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/03/05/rumor-bioware-closes-san-francisco-office.aspx

[wholehole]

I had a load of ration seals piling up so I bought one the mid-level packs with them. I can't see anyone needing to buy one to progress though as resources are plentiful if you deploy your bots every once in a while.

The supercharged frames you also get in the packs aren't a massive improvement over the standard ones, it wouldn't really make the game any easier through using them.

[Jimboxy]

So the in app purchases have little to no effect on the actual game then.

[HandsomeDead]

Let's look at this from another perspective: does this over drawn out loot mechanic add to the game in any meaningful way other than something they can stick a price tag on?

I'd say no. I can't remember the last time I played a horror style game and thought "you know what this needs? loot farming"

[HandsomeDead]

Apart from it hasn't got a "drawn out loot mechanic"... you can play the game completely normal without farming or buying ANYTHING AT ALL.... why don't you try playing it, it might clear a few things up.

Sometimes i wonder why you even bother with gaming, DC... its obviously no fun for you.

If it's so unnecessary why is it even there? Even EA has no faith in their own model as if they felt lots of people would like to use these microtransactions then they would have sold the game for £20 at launch and make the money from selling bits and bobs afterwards. But no, they want it all.

And I love games, but I hate the industry. I'll piss an moan about the industry until they stop being dicks.

[Sly Reflex]

I was talking to DC, about microtransactions ages ago and how they are artificially lengthening games by design so that people will cough up the money to bypass the monotony to get the rewards.

I think the example we found most disgusting were one of the best guns in Battlefield 3 (Hello again EA) was locked away behind a mode that would require you to play for hours and hours grinding XP out until you maxed that portion of the game, of you could drop a few quid and just unlock it there and then. I know a few people that dropped money on that because they were playing the main part of the game and getting owned by people using this particular gun.

Like I say, if you're terrible at the game you could spend money to make better guns quicker... thats about as good as it gets.

And the developers actually put a way to farm resources into the game (admittedly its a ballache to do), so why anyone would bother is beyond me.

See, you don't need that gun to play online in Battlefield 3, but it makes the experience you get online better because you can contend better with people using it. You could sit for hours playing co-op, but that's boring and a fucking ballache to do.

I'm all for them offering these option to unlock everything myself. If people want to shortcut their way through the game they just paid £40 for then let them, it's their money. What I am against is them locking stuff away behind hours and hours of gameplay that happens to be awesome to use or is not balanced so everyone feels like they have to either spend the hours with their nose to the grindstone or dropping a few quid just to get it there and then.

[wholehole]

I think a lot of this comes from the F2P model becoming so popular in recent months and publishers desperately trying to fit it into their business models. There's a very thin line between stretching out content whilst still making it worthwhile to spend the time playing and just paying for certain content outright.

Games like Warframe and Hawken seem to have pretty much nailed it, whereas EA are royally fucking it up with their misguided fumblings adding this style of content to full priced games as a "feature".

It's not just publishers that need to get used to this, we need to start thinking differently about it as well. As DC said, if DS3 was £20 (and the microtransactions were a little more worthwhile), we'd be much more likely to want to spend a bit more, considering we'd have usually paid up to £40. That's around £20 of content we could choose to purchase, effectively customising the game.