Dead Space remake revealed at EA Play event

A Dead Space remake has been officially revealed today at EA Play. 

After months of ongoing rumors, EA has confirmed that a Dead Space remake for PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC is in the works at Star Wars: Squadrons studio Motive. The reveal trailer is a brief but ominous look at the rebuilt Ishimura ship, and if nothing else, it's proof of a staggering visual upgrade over the 2008 original. We get a short glimpse at the classic necromorph, Isaac's suit, and some tiny environmental details – most notably the iconic "cut off their limbs" warning and even the vending machines from the opening room – which suggest an authentic experience.   

The remake has been "completely rebuilt" using the Frostbite engine, EA explained in a press release, and is promising more than just a one-to-one HD remaster. We can apparently expect "an improved story, characters, gameplay mechanics and more," which roughly lines up with previous reports that the remake would integrate features and quality-of-life upgrades seen in Dead Space 2 and 3.  

If you haven't been keeping up with the rumor mill over the course of 2021 so far, this Dead Space revival from EA has been doing the rounds for just over a month now. Back in June, a journalist claimed that EA would reviving a long-dormant IP for a new game, which obviously got fans speculating as to which game series in particular would receive a new lease of life.

Then a little later, right at the beginning of this month, another comment from the same source claimed that EA Motive would be developing this revival. However this time around, the tease wasn't quite so vague, and plenty were able to ascertain that the journalist was teasing a Dead Space revival being in development. This was then corroborated by two further reports, claiming that the apparent Dead Space revival would be unveiled at EA Play later on in the month.

At the time, the reports claimed that the upcoming reboot of the horror series would actually be a remake of the original Dead Space, developed at the now-defunct Visceral Games. One report claimed that this was due to the success of the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes, released in 2019 and 2020 respectively, both of which have been commercial hits for publisher/developer Capcom. EA was apparently swayed into reviving Dead Space due to these two popular remakes, as well as the response to its single-player hit Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Right now though, it's time for fans of the storied horror saga to celebrate. The Dead Space remake arguably stole the show at EA Play earlier today, but there were still other treats to enjoy, including new information about the next playable character coming to Apex Legends, and new details of Battlefield 2042's extensive Portal sandbox mode.

Head over to our ranking of the best horror games to see if the original Dead Space made the cut.