EA cans the deadspace franchise and shuts down developer...

[Maximilian]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...s-following-poor-sales-of-dead-space-3-report

Shouldve stuck to survival horror like the first two dead space games IMO.

Update: Looks like its a false rumor

 

[Nintendesert]

Hahah good. I'm glad EA isn't being rewarded by ruining franchises with the CODing of everything. Hopefully EA goes bankrupt and gets split apart and sold off. From the ashes shall arise something less sucky!

 

[Red Storm]

To all those who say EA gets too much flak... here's another example in the long line of examples.

I would hate to have to work for EA.

 

[Bateluer]

To all those who say EA gets too much flak... here's another example in the long line of examples.

I would hate to have to work for EA.

No kidding. Cycle goes about like this.

1. Developer makes widely successful game with a innovative new concept.
2. EA buys out developer.
3. Under EA direction, developer creates sequel for the mainstream, losing everything that made the original successful.
4. Sales suffer. Piracy blamed.
5. EA execs scratch heads, wonder what happened. Piracy blamed.
6. New sequel made, implements online only DRM with limited activations, game play even more streamlined.
7. Game gets mediocre reviews, sells poorly. Piracy blamed.
8. EA closes developer. Piracy blamed.

 

[Sulaco]

EA, Capcom. Capcom, EA. Have you two met?



Although to be perfectly honest, it's probably for the best. Dead Space 4 would have ended up being "Call of Dead Space 4: Spec Ops Edition".

Yet another great franchise that got great by sticking to a discernible genre and excelling at it. This case, a horror game!. People like that. People bought that. They loved it. Critics praised it.
That's not good enough anymore. As soon as a slightly more niche, less-than-CoD-mainstream game succeeds, stupid publishers decide the only way to keep the series and genre afloat is to radically alter everything that made it a success to begin with, and attract a "wider, more mainstream market". Read; children and morons, who don't care for your game anyway.

 

[darkewaffle]

I think they may have overplayed their hand. The amount of advertising and tie-ins I've seen for DS3 has been pretty crazy. On the other hand nothing's been confirmed yet.

And Dead Space was developed in-house EA from day one. The company behind it has been under EA since 1998.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Oh EA. You make me laugh.

Whats sad about this is the storyline. There was so much to it, then they went and basically said, story? who needs that and turned it into a COD fest. EA has shown repeatedly, they don't get it. That little rant by Cliffy last week only strengthens the opinion.

 

[waggy]

I mentioned in the dead space thread that i didn't think this would do very well. between the micro-transactions and such i figured EA would kill it.

EA is like the death touch of games. they buy them and kill them.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I haven't really played Deadspace 2 or 3, but the series was probably right to die after three (if not after the first). What wasn't right was forcing the game into a different genre and then canning the developers after they were done sucking the marrow from their bones. Neither the developers nor the horror genre deserve that.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

How did EA screw this up?

 

[Pray To Jesus]

EA never learns it's quite sad

EA has gone on the record to say its core game franchises need to sell upwards of five million copies to remain viable.

It seems Dead Space 3 suffered a somewhat troubled development. According to the report, weapon-specific ammo was switched for generic ammo late in the day to accommodate the game's controversial micro-transactions, and developer Visceral were ordered to take the series into a more action-focused direction in order to emulate BioWare's Mass Effect franchise and broaden its appeal.

 

[Elixer]

While I really hate the micro transactions that pretty much all publishers are doing now, for those of you that think if EA goes under would be better are clearly wrong.
Less competition is never good.

Look at the new sim game they just put out, requires always on DRM (like starcraft 2) has micro transactions and people are still buying those things.
EA just follows the $$$.
If people would stop buying this kind of crap, companies will listen.


In any case, this "story" looks to be 100% BS.

UPDATE: Dino Ignacio, UI Lead at Dead Space developer Visceral Games, has denied today's story about the end of the Dead Space series.

"The reports of our death were greatly exaggerated," he tweeted. "Please stand by."

Ian Milham, creative director at EA and ex-art director on Dead Space, also took to Twitter to deny the story.

"Almost nothing in that article is true," he wrote. Then, in response to a question on Twitter: "I confirm nothing except the hooey in that story."

EA's US PR team has reportedly called the VideoGamer.com report "patently false".

"While we have not announced sales for Dead Space 3, we are proud of the game and the franchise remains an important IP to EA," an EA spokesperson told Eurogamer.

 

[JamesV]

So Deadspace 3 has only 1 ammo type? That is changing a core part of the game.

If they changed so much of the other parts of the game, then it's a good thing I didn't buy it.

 

[KaOTiK]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I can not for the life of me understand how publishers think. Get a niche/unqiue/whatever type of game that does well and when they make a sequel they begin take away all that made it unique to start with just so it can appeal to a larger market of people who didn't give a shit about it with the first title. It is like why fucking bother. You take away/water down what made it a success so you can make it more successful.......

Really pisses me off because so much games have been destroyed due to this.

 

[clok1966]

How did EA screw this up?

micro transactions, requiring said game to sell 5 million copies. Smaller dev teams, slower dev time less money in product works for other companies, not EA, buy said company thow 30-40 employes from some other company you used up and closed, double the dev team and set a deadline about 1 year from last game.. requires HUGE sell through to make money.

and ORIGIN... HUGE games can sell even when you force a NEW service down users throats.. great Nitch games cannot..


people buy Micro transactions, but saying we want um is not fair.. make a full game, 10 weapons 30 maps, no weapons addons, no map packs.. people buy it.. make half a game with 5 weapons and 3 maps.. then sell a bunch of addons, maps and guns.. of course most will buy um.. the game wasn't complete without them.. We prefer complete games ..

the reason i wont buy a EA game.. it has sucked a bit.. they still have a few games they haven't sucked the life out of.. I wont let um micro trasaction m.. I wont let um screw others out fo trying to make a better product ( madden and NFL football, you cant make a better game, dont make it so others cant try).. anybody who thinks EA is about anything but pure money.. and even once thinks about the end user is wrong.. making money is ok, making it with NO re guard at all for end user is not. EA, KING of "it my ball if i you don't play my way I will take it home" its so sad millions of you keep playing BF3 and SIMS ( I loved BF42, brings a tear to my eye each time i see the EA logo on one of the BF games) and keep um thinking they can stick it up your wazoo and you will take it.

 

[Red Hawk]

Pay attention, people. EA is outright denying these rumors. And it hardly makes sense to get mad at EA for "ruining" Dead Space since, as darkewaffle pointed out, EA has been in charge of Dead Space since it's inception. By criticizing EA for ruining it you are implicitly giving it credit for however good Dead Space was before...

 

[wirednuts]

No kidding. Cycle goes about like this.

1. Developer makes widely successful game with a innovative new concept.
2. EA buys out developer.
3. Under EA direction, developer creates sequel for the mainstream, losing everything that made the original successful.
4. Sales suffer. Piracy blamed.
5. EA execs scratch heads, wonder what happened. Piracy blamed.
6. New sequel made, implements online only DRM with limited activations, game play even more streamlined.
7. Game gets mediocre reviews, sells poorly. Piracy blamed.
8. EA closes developer. Piracy blamed.

god damn, this piracy thing seems serious.

 

[Red Hawk]

It's actually been a while since I've seen piracy specifically blamed for low sales by a publisher.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

Serial pirates don't buy in the first place, and they are the ones that drive up piracy numbers. The conversion rate must be worse than 5%.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Actually...I wouldn't doubt this is a hoax....it did seem odd that this game was said to be a flop a few weeks after release. I didn't think the reviews of it were THAT bad overall.

 

[shingletingle]

LOL @ everyone eager to do the "bash EA" thing because that's the cool thing to do. Meanwhile, the store is completely false.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Wonder how long it is before it's actually true....

 

[WiseUp216]

Two thoughts...

1. lol @ internet journalism.

2. I think it's funny that I (and many) didn't doubt EA would do it.. My highly sensitive bullshit detector didn't even budge.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Actually..this kinda thing happens often, so no, it wasn't hard to believe that it was true. But you go, smarter than the internet guy.

 

[ArenCordial]

Glad its false, can't say I like the direction they took Dead Space in but the guys at Visceral seem to have some real talent. I'd hate for them to lose their jobs.

Course if it was true I wouldn't have batted an eyelash in surprise.