EA Motive says horror fans “missed out” on original ‘Dead Space’

Philippe Ducharme, senior producer at EA Motive, has shared that he believes “a lot of people” missed out on playing Dead Space, claiming the market for survival horror was smaller at the time.

While chatting with NME, Ducharme said that part of the reason a game should be remade comes down to “the success of the initial game itself.”

“I think that every game has…it depends on the success of the initial game itself. I think that for us, when we look at Dead Space, Dead Space 1 was a success for the [time], critically acclaimed and fan acclaimed, but back then the pool size of players for survival horror was actually not that big, it was not like, huge unit sellers,” explained Ducharme.

Ducharme went on to point out that “things like Stranger Things” has helped horror become more mainstream, and “increased that player base” for survival horror.

“I think that the market evolved and grew, and a lot of people actually missed out on a game like Dead Space back then, so we want this to be an opportunity for those players to play the definitive, updated version of Dead Space and for returning players, the ones that did play it, to have something that’s worth it for them.”

Beyond that, Ducharme also suggested that the 2008 release of Dead Space was in need of some graphical improvements. “We often get people saying ‘The game [looked] good back then, why remake it?’ And they launch it and start playing, and they’re like…’Okay, now I get it!’”

However, Ducharme acknowledged that it can be tricky to revisit a game that remains popular with existing fans. On how Motive is addressing that, the senior producer said the team’s philosophy is to try not to “offend existing fans.”

Additional reporting by Jake Tucker