EA plans Dead Space FPS, Uncharted-style games - report

EA has plans to uproot its survival horror series Dead Space after next instalment Dead Space 3, a new report suggests.

A Dead Space first-person shooter, a flight-based spin-off, and an "Uncharted-like game" are all being planned, according to Kotaku.

New management at EA apparently told the Dead Space team it needed to consider new ways of expanding the series, and "nearly killed off" the series' planned threequel Dead Space 3.

This year's Dead Space 2 sold more than two million copies, faring better than Dead Space 1, but EA has said series sales can still improve.

"I think it will probably take Dead Space 3 before we get into that five million unit cadence versus say three, four," EA boss John Riccitello remarked in February.

Dead Space 3 remains in production, however. As previously rumoured, the game will be set on an icy planet where dark corners will be replaced by blinding white snow.

Dead Space 3 will apparently complete the story of central protagonist Isaac Clarke, rounding off the original series as a trilogy and allowing EA to expand Dead Space into further genres.

The new report is not surprising - EA has a history of pushing Dead Space beyond the core console instalments, albeit with mixed results. On-rails 8/10 Wii shooter Dead Space: Extraction was developed as a prequel to the original Dead Space game, while awful 3/10 downloadable puzzler Dead Space Ignition was released to accompany Dead Space 2.

There have also been comic books, novels and animated film tie-ins produced.