After Silent Hill's Remakes, Dead Space's Prognosis is Dirt…

The survival horror genre is seeing a resurgence thanks to the widespread critical and financial success of the Silent Hill remakes, Resident Evil remakes, and anticipated brand-new survival horror titles such as Silent Hill f and Cronos: The New Dawn. While Silent Hill continues to make its revival from the cancellation of Silent Hills with Silent Hill f and the Silent Hill 2 remake, one other iconic survival horror franchise appears to be stuck in its unmarked grave: Dead Space. Despite the respect the Visceral Games series earned throughout the seventh console generation, Dead Space has remained effectively dead for some time now, but there is a slight chance for it to make a grand return going forward.

Silent Hill f Can't Pull Its Punches Like the Series Has Before

The Silent Hill franchise has thrived on psychological scares, but one lackluster series staple is hopefully improved in Silent Hill f.

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By LB Beistad

Recent Survival Horror Game Success Stories

Silent Hill and Resident Evil defined the survival horror game genre in the late 1990s, but toward the end of the seventh console generation, survival horror began to slowly disappear as many games skewed more towards an action focus. However, Resident Evil helped lead survival horror back to mainstream popularity thanks to the critical and financial success of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and the similarly celebrated Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes. Silent Hill likewise saw a welcome survivor horror revival with 2024’s Silent Hill 2 remake, which became the fastest-selling game in the franchise by selling over two million copies within its first three months.

In the wake of these survival horror success stories, more gaming companies and developers have begun producing more survival horror titles with similar critical and financial results. For example, Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake 2, released 13 years after Alan Wake 1, became Remedy’s fastest selling of all time and won Best Game Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction at the 2023 Game Awards. Other companies are similarly jumping on the survival horror bandwagon with Creative Assembly developing a sequel to the underrated Alien: Isolation and Bloober Team developing its own survival horror title called Cronos: The New Dawn following the success of Silent Hill 2. Meanwhile, Capcom and Konami are leaning more into survival horror with the anticipated Resident Evil Requiem, Silent Hill f, and Silent Hill 1 remake.

EA Motive’s Underappreciated Dead Space Remake

EA wasn’t blind to the reemerging success of survival horror titles in the late 2010s and early 2020s. It contracted Motive Studio to develop a remake of 2008’s Dead Space for modern platforms to replicate the financial success of the Resident Evil remakes and their peers. Motive’s Dead Space was officially unveiled at EA's Play Live event in July 2021 but wouldn’t officially debut until January 2023. Many critics praised 2023’s Dead Space for its stunningly haunting visuals, immersive audio design, and updating of Isaac Clarke’s character, who was previously a silent protagonist in the original Dead Space 1. Fans of Dead Space similarly praised the remake for incorporating gameplay and narrative elements from Dead Space 2 and 3.

Dead Space’s creator Glen Schofield even thanked Motive for how well the developer faithfully remade Dead Space 1 for modern audiences. 2023’s Dead Space went on to earn positive reviews and nominations for several awards, even selling well against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Hogwarts Legacy, which also released in early 2023. However, despite the critical acclaim, EA was disappointed by the Dead Space remake’s sales and reportedly shelved both a Dead Space 2 remake and a new original sequel to the remake. Following Dead Space 2023’s release, the franchise has remained relatively dormant once more, save for Isaac Clarke’s occasional appearance in other games such as Fortnite and Battlefield 2042.

The Potential Future of Dead Space

If future Silent Hill and Resident Evil remakes and sequels continue to succeed critically and financially, that may cause EA to reconsider greenlighting a Dead Space 2 remake, a Motive original follow-up to 2023’s Dead Space, or a completely brand-new Dead Space game. However, single-player published EA games have been performing inconsistently following 2023’s Dead Space release. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was considered to be a commercial success, but Tales of Kenzera: Zau and Dragon Age: The Veilguard significantly underperformed EA’s expectations. Due to these results, EA may try to incorporate some kind of multiplayer or microtransaction functionality into future single-player horror titles to increase potential profits, similar to the microtransaction seen in Dead Space 3.

One potential reason for 2023’s Dead Space commercial underperformance could have been due to its release timing. Many recent Silent Hill and Resident Evil titles have been released near the Halloween season instead of the less horror-centric time period of January. If EA were to develop a Dead Space 2 remake or a brand-new Dead Space game, it should strive to release it near October, when audiences would be looking to play a new horror game. Although a new game would be an exciting development, a Dead Space 2 remake may be the best route for EA to take, since Dead Space 2 is often considered to be the best game in the original trilogy.