Dead Space has sold roughly 1.4 million copies since it was released in October 2008, a figure that makes EA’s Glen Schofield “happy” and bodes well for its future as a franchise.
Dead Space launched to critical acclaim and solid but unremarkable sales, managing to break one million copies sold across the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms by the end of the year. Sales of the game have now reached 1.4 million units, according to Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) General Manager Glen Schofield, who added that he’s “satisfied” that Dead Space is on its way to becoming a major gaming franchise.
“I’m happy with [Dead Space sales], based on the economy. Last year could’ve been one of the greatest launch years in the history of video games around October time, but it was a year where people bought less games than they normally would. Do I wish it sold more? Absolutely,” Schofield said. “But the critical acclaim and the number of awards – we’re at 75 and counting now – have made [Dead Space] bigger than just the number of sales. If you look at used sales and rentals, we’re looking at probably 3 or 4 million people who have played the game.”
He also expressed optimism about Dead Space: Extraction, the Wii-exclusive prequel that’s slated for release later this year. Despite the failure of Sega’s much-hyped MadWorld to post mad sales, he said there is a market for M-rated games on the Wii, provided they’re done properly. “If you look back at Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil 4 for the Wii, those sold close to a million and over a million,” he continued. “Madworld – to me, personally it’s an art piece, and after a while, I got really tired of the art look. For me, I just couldn’t take the black and white. So I don’t think it’s a matter of their not being a market, because soon there will be 60 million Wiis out there.”
But while he’s anxious to see Dead Space become a popular cross-platform franchise, Schofield said it was unlikely the series would ever find its way to portable systems. “I think part of the problem is all the major physics and the dismemberment, and things like that,” he said. “I want to stay true to the vision of Dead Space, and that is about dismemberment, zero G, and stuff like that. We’d have to make some compromises that I am not willing to make yet.”
Source: GameSpot
Published: May 5, 2009 09:50 pm