Dead Space 2 Cost $60 Million, Underperformed in Sales

Following the closure of Visceral Games by Electronic Arts with its untitled Star Wars project shifting to EA Vancouver, new details have emerged about the studio’s trials. Former level designer Zach Wilson, who now works at Bethesda, spoke out about Dead Space 2 and how its budget hit $60 million. However, the game itself would only sell 4 million copies.

Wilson said that EA wanted an even higher budget and a large amount of marketing, cuts given to Microsoft and Sony, and so on resulted in the $60 million cost. Along with Wilson, former game director Scott Warner also spoke out and noted that while Visceral was meant to do well, it was ultimately “defeated by forces beyond our control”. Warner, who now works as a design lead at Oclus VR, said that it was “way more complicated” than just blaming Electronic Arts.

Though the Star Wars title, codenamed Ragtag, hasn’t been cancelled, it’s undergoing significant changes. Originally helmed by former Uncharted director Amy Hennig, the publisher confirmed that it was in discussion with her to decide her “next move”.

cause you gotta spend 60 million dollars marketing it and you take a huge hit from MS and retailers taking their cut

— Zach Wilson (@covernode) October 17, 2017

Really bummed about @VisceralGames. We were setup for success and were defeated by forces beyond our control.

— Scott Warner (@scottfeed) October 17, 2017