Dead Space Franchise Discontinued? Reports Greatly Exaggerated

In a recent series of apparent misinformation and lies, Dead Space was briefly reported to have been canned and then not.

A report published on the website VideoGamer.com stated that the lower than expected sales of the third in the franchise's main series had brought about its end. An anonymous source spoke with the site and claimed that Dead Space 4 had been in pre-production at Viceral Games Montreal had been ordered to discontinue plans for the title following the developer's closure pending restructuring. 

The source also claimed that Dead Space 3 was almost cancelled part way through development and multiple ammunition types originally intended for the game were abandoned in favor of the universal ammo found within the title to help promote the game's micro-transactions. In part to try and make Dead Space appeal to a wider audience, something linked with its emphasis upon action over horror, and also as an effort to make it closer to Bioware's more marketable Mass Effect series.

After dropping Medal of Honour, and the publisher's decisions of late, this wouldn't have been a surprise but thankfully it looks like Electronic Arts is keeping the space zombie killing franchise afloat for a little longer.

Creative Director at EA and former art-director for Dead Space Ian Milham Tweeted that the entire article as untrue and in a later response that he "could confirm nothing but they hooey in that story." This was further backed by statements from  Viceral Games design lead Dino Ignacio who claimed that "Reports of our death were greatly exaggerated. Please stand by."
Furthermore an EA spokesperson responding to Eurogamer's article on this apparent development delivered the following message "While we have not announced sales for Dead Space 3, we are proud of the game and the franchise remains an important IP to EA,"

Considering the quality of the series in spite of the decision to include game-breaking micro-transactions in the latest title, this is very good news. With any luck we'll be seeing a fourth title following on from the cliffhanger conclusion to 3.