Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grub reported earlier today that EA’s Motive Studio was working on a Dead Space 2 remake before it was shelved following lackluster sales of the team’s Dead Space remake last year. However, EA has denied Grubb’s reporting, telling IGN, “We don’t normally comment on rumors but there is no validity to this story.” 

On Giant Bomb’s Game Mess Mornings show, Grubb said, “They were working on it, they were working on Dead Space 2 and they are no longer working on it. It is on the shelf because the first game had lackluster sales, is how it was phrased to me.”

He continues, adding, “As it stands right now, they were working on it; it was in the concepting phase…pre-production, and now that work has been put on the shelf.” 

[Game Mess Mornings]

According to @JeffGrubb, EA Motive was working on a ‘Dead Space 2’ Remake which was in concept phase but got cancelled/shelved because of the lackluster sales of the first Remake.

They are now working on Iron Man and Battlefield.https://t.co/iqv0EGNXJX pic.twitter.com/LziW0qx72X

— Knoebel (@Knoebelbroet) April 10, 2024

Grubb revealed this today following yesterday’s news from Motive itself, where general manager Patrick Klaus announced the studio was creating a new team to support EA’s Battlefield franchise while development on its Iron Man game with Marvel continues. Hours later, EA denied Grubb’s claim in a statement to IGN. 

Following up on IGN‘s report, Grubb said on X (formerly Twitter), “I give you my permission to believe EA if you want, but whenever a company says ‘that isn’t true’ but they don’t specify which part of the story they are talking about, well…yeah. Dead Space 2 was definitely being planned. It had a code name. And they aren’t making it now.” 

IGN news director Kat Bailey, who wrote IGN‘s story about all this today, responded to Grubb, saying, “My understanding based on my own sources is that the Dead Space 2 Remake was never considered. Also, EA’s statement was pretty definitive.” 

My understanding based on my own sources is that the Dead Space 2 Remake was never considered. Also, EA’s statement was pretty definitive.

— Kat Bailey🏳️‍🌈 (@The_Katbot) April 10, 2024

And that’s where it stands today. Grubb said Motive was working on a remake of Dead Space 2 before it was shelved following lackluster sales of last year’s Dead Space remake, and EA says that’s not true. Unfortunately, we’ll likely never know the true story here, but if you were holding out hope for a remake of Dead Space 2, it’s not happening for now it seems.

For what’s it’s worth, we asked Dead Space remake creative director Roman Campos-Oriola about the possibility of a Dead Space 2 remake in an interview conducted a few weeks after the game’s launch. His response: “…we’ll see how the game performs, what the company wants, what the studio wants, what we as a team we want to do, and we’ll figure it out from there. But for the moment, there’s no specific plan defined.”

For more, read Game Informer’s review of Dead Space remake, and then read about Motive’s in-development Iron Man game. 

Were you hoping for a remake of Dead Space 2 or are you glad Motive is working on Battlefield and Iron Man instead? Let us know in the comments below!