Updated on Jul 03, 2025:EA said that “there is no validity to this story” in a statement toIGN. Grubbrespondedby doubling down on his claims. The original story follows.
Summary
The rumoredDead Space 2remake has been canceled, an established industry insider has claimed. The project has reportedly been shelved over disappointing sales of the firstDead Spaceremake.
The reimagining of the original entry in the franchise was released in January 2023. TheDead Spaceremake was met with near-universal critical acclaim, in addition to amassing multiple award nominations.
Despite that immensely positive buzz, the reimagining of this cult classic did not sell as well as EA hoped it would. That’s according to journalist Jeff Grubb, who characterized the game’s sales as “lackluster,” quoting people familiar with the matter. Some 12 minutes into the latest episode of theGame Mess Morningspodcast, the industry insider explained that this poor commercial performance led to EA Motive shelving theDead Space 2remake. While the game itself has never been officially announced, Grubb reports that it was in an early, concept stage of development by the time it was canceled.
This bit of unofficial insight into the ill-fated project was offered in response to the news of an organizational reshuffle at EA Motive. Announced on April 9 by General Manager Patrick Klaus, the move saw part of the Canadian studio’s staffers transferred to assist with the next entry in theBattlefieldfranchise. At the same time,EA Motive’s upcomingIron Mangame is still progressing well, Klaus said, adding that the project has recently cleared a “major internal milestone,” without elaborating on the matter. It is unclear whether the purported cancelation of theDead Space 2remake was a direct result of the studio dividing its priorities even further, although Grubb did suggest that may have been the case.
The allegation that the project was scrapped over weak sales of its predecessor may come as a surprise to some fans, not least because theDead Spaceremake seemingly had a fairly strong commercial start. Specifically, the game debuted at the top of the UK’s physical sales charts, in addition to ranking as high as second on Steam’s global Top Sellers list. The only title that outperformed theDead Spaceremake during its launch month on Valve’s storefront wasHogwarts Legacy, which went on to become the best-selling game of 2023 across most major markets.
It is unclear whether these supposedly “lackluster” sales were weak to the point of the company losing money on the remake. Based on EA Motive’s headcount, the average gross salary for game developers in the studio’s general area, and the fact that theDead Spaceremake spent around three years in active development, it can be roughly estimated that the project would have broken even with around 500,000 sales. That is assuming a flat 30% cut for storefront owners, and not accounting for any marketing costs and taxes.
Dead Space (2023)
WHERE TO PLAY
The sci-fi survival-horror classic Dead Space™ returns, completely rebuilt from the ground up to offer a deeper, more immersive experience. This remake brings jaw-dropping visual fidelity, suspenseful atmospheric audio, and improvements to gameplay while staying faithful to the original game’s thrilling vision.Isaac Clarke is an everyman engineer on a mission to repair a vast mining ship, the USG Ishimura, only to discover something has gone horribly wrong. The ship’s crew has been slaughtered and Isaac’s beloved partner, Nicole, is lost somewhere on board.Now alone and armed with only his engineering tools and skills, Isaac races to find Nicole as the nightmarish mystery of what happened aboard the Ishimura unravels around him. Trapped with hostile creatures called Necromorphs, Isaac faces a battle for survival, not only against the escalating terrors of the ship but against his own crumbling sanity.
