Dead Space 2 Diary - How EA's New Franchise Bet Paid Off

Dead Space 2 was released at the end of last month, and everyone, from media representatives to fans, are extremely pleased with Visceral Games' new release, praising its horror feeling, character development and the additions it brings over the original.

We've had quite a long series of gamer diaries about Dead Space 2, but now, at the end of it, we should really commend Electronic Arts, the publisher of the games, for taking a risk with the new franchise and giving it enough support to develop into a serious survival horror series.

Back at the beginning of 2009, things were bit complicated for the gaming industry, and new intellectual properties could be counted on just a pair of hands.

Electronic Arts, on the verge of a revival in terms of development strategy, choosing quality over quantity, backed up two new titles, Dead Space, coming from the EA Redwood Shores studio (now Visceral Games) and Mirror's Edge, from the DICE team.

The titles didn't have blockbuster sales, with EA itself saying that some things should have been done differently in order for them to reach expectations, but the company continued to back them up.

This has now manifested in Dead Space 2 at the beginning of the year, a title that sold very well, especially when compared to the original, and gained critical acclaim.

The Visceral Games studio, after setting up its own identity and launching the previous Dante's Inferno title, has proven that it knows how to craft a great experience, with a compelling story but also with great gameplay and even a pretty decent multiplayer mode.

Without spoiling much of the ending, it's pretty safe to say that Dead Space 3 will arrive in the future, and it seems that EA has gotten itself a great franchise, in a genre that's pretty much free of serious rivals.

Hopefully, for the sake of all gamers, more companies will learn from it and continue to back up new projects, even if their first iteration doesn't match up to the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops or other established franchises.