Dead Space 3 Trying To Broaden, Not Alienate, Its Audience

Throughout many of my Dead Space 3 posts are not-so-subtle indications that I am somewhat disappointed by the direction the series appears to have taken. With Issac now joining every other protagonist behind cover, the series looks to be largely turning its back on the horror aspect that defined the series.

EA Labels president Frank Gibeau recently addressed these concerns in an interview with CVG, asserting that they don’t want to “piss off [their] fans” but want the game to be more “broadly appealing”:

“What we’ve tried to do with each instalment is tell a different story about Isaac but at the same time bring in new features and ways to turn the game into a more connected experience,” he said. “… so we embraced [the co-op] idea and we tried to open up the accessibility of the IP a little bit by adding a little bit more action, but not undermining the horror. We can’t not be a horror game because that’s what Dead Space is … and at the same time we definitely do not want to piss off our fans by taking it too far from horror.

“We’re very self aware of that – we listen to the fans and we hear them. We’re going to be releasing more assets over the coming months that show you how deep the horror is. It’s definitely not getting away from gore or horror, but at the same time it’s opening up to a larger audience by adding some elements.

“In general we’re thinking about how we make this a more broadly appealing franchise, because ultimately you need to get to audience sizes of around five million to really continue to invest in an IP like Dead Space. Anything less than that and it becomes quite difficult financially given how expensive it is to make games and market them.

“We feel good about that growth but we have to be very paranoid about making sure we don’t change the experience so much that we lose the fanbase.”

I am still not entirely convinced that Dead Space 3 will be the game I want it to be, but I appreciate that these concerns have been addressed and that the financial situation of maintaining an IP such as this has been revealed. I guess we will just have to wait until its February 2013 release to know for certain if the fear of the franchise has been lost.

What do you think, has Issac lost his way, even though the RIG he wears can project a map directly in front of him?