While Motive Studios had worked quite hard on its remake of Dead Space, it looks like a brand new entry in the sci-fi horror franchise is unlikely to happen. According to series writer and producer Chuck Beaver, in an interview with FRVR, this comes down to the fact that the franchise’s sales haven’t quite impressed EA. Beaver has said that the “numbers just aren’t there” for EA to greenlight a Dead Space 4.
He did note, however, that he didn’t feel like it was “unfair at all” for the series to essentially end after the release of Dead Space 3. He put this down to his career as a producer, which has given him insight into how things like sales numbers tend to work.
“It wasn’t like it didn’t get a run out of it,” he said. “I mean, it’s disappointing that we can’t make a beloved franchise to its logical end, but I guess I’m too much of a producer, [I’ve] been producing for too long. I understand the numbers, and I understand what’s happening, and why even Motive wasn’t really greenlit for anything after the remake.”
He went on to point out that, despite all of the success of horror games in general, there is still a ceiling on how many copies a certain game in the genre will sell. During the development of the Dead Space franchise, Beaver has noted that former EA vice president Frank Gibeau wanted 5 million units sold to justify more games.
“Horror games have a bit of a ceiling, you know, and I think the number back in [former EA VP] Frank Gibeau’s day was 5 million units to keep going on Dead Space,” Beaver said. “I think the number is like 15 million units now, given the cost of things.”
With the industry in its current state, Beaver believes that EA will want a game to sell around 7 million copies to consider it viable. The number doesn’t come from anywhere, however, since it is in direct comparison with Capcom’s recent Resident Evil outings. The company had recently confirmed that it had sold 7 million copies of Resident Evil Requiem, for instance.
“Any of the Resident Evils are selling around seven million [units], that’s a pretty good number,” Beaver explained. “Like you can make that hunt for some amount of stuff. But, you know, companies now are looking for the next Fortnite. They need something that is a perennial moneymaker… something like a single-player package game with no live-service offering that’s like it’s just a dinosaur fossil of a business model.”
Aside from the 2023 remake of the original Dead Space, the last mainline entry in the franchise was 2013’s Dead Space 3 on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. A report from December 2025 has indicated that the Dead Space series is essentially “on ice”. While there are apparently developers at EA that would hope for the IP to be sold and picked up by another company, EA itself seems to have “zero plans” for it, at least for now.
