The 2nd game had "such an outpouring of support" from fans it was easily green lit, but they can't make Dead Space 3 "just because." Open-world?
"We've mapped out where we'd like to go with it. Not at a super high level of detail. But, for instance, we've just released our novel, Martyr. We've talked about the inception of the Unitology religion," said Visceral Games' executive producer Steve Papoutsis.
"We've thought about it all. But ultimately, just like with Dead Space 2, we have to have the support from the players in order to do it. Hopefully the game comes out, people like it, it has critical support, and a lot of people buy it. And then we'll get an opportunity to do another one."
"Nobody's going to just let you go and do another game just because. You have to have the people that are interested in it. That was what was great about Dead Space 2. There was such an outpouring of support that it was easy for us to get the company behind it and give us the opportunity to make it," continued the Dead Space 2 man.
"Games are complex and expensive. It really helps when you've got a lot of people who are excited and supportive of what you're doing. We can do great things when that happens. But when there isn't an outpouring of support it doesn't make a lot of sense to do that."
"We're working really hard to make sure this game's better so we get a chance to do Dead Space 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 and 20," he joked. As for where the franchise could go in the future, Papoutis wouldn't rule out a possible open-world game.
"I don't see why you couldn't," he said. "When we think about Dead Space we think of a very story driven experience. Generally speaking an open world doesn't lend itself to that."
"You can. There have been great open world games – inFamous – there are a bunch of games that have that element. But really what we're good at is that crafted progression you're seeing currently when we demonstrate Dead Space 2 and what you've seen in Dead Space." Visceral aren't bored of Dead Space: "It's pretty cool. We're all really into it."
Dead Space 2 releases on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC January 28th.
