Dead Space creator Glen Schofield says he'd love to make an Alien game, and yes, that's capital-A Alien he's referring to.
Talking to PC Gamer, Schofield laid out a hypothetical scenario where 20th Century Studios hands him the rights to the Alien franchise, which is seeing something of a resurgence thanks to the FX series Alien Earth.
"Let's say I took on a licence," he said. "Which I really don't want to do; I want to make my own. Let's say somebody came to me and said, 'We're going to give you the Alien licence.' Immediately I could show you, I don't know, maybe 100 different aliens I've made in Midjourney over the last two years, just because I like it. So yeah, I would love to make an Alien game."
It's been two years since the last non-VR Alien game, Aliens: Dark Descent, and 11 years since the excellent Alien: Isolation. Schofield would go on to direct three mainline Call of Duty games as Sledgehammer studio founder, and most recently, The Callisto Protocol, which is a spiritual successor to Dead Space but dropped the ball critically and financially.
If Schofield were to be approached for an Alien project, he has some pretty strict terms on his involvement.
"I have to own the creative," he says. "That's not even negotiable. Because I won't make a great game unless it's mine and I'm so ingrained in it—then I will give you 130%."
As someone who thinks The Callisto Protocol deserved better - certainly not major accolades but better than the potentially career-ending flop that it was - I'm not against Schofield taking a stab at the Alien franchise.
Regardless, whether or not you're game for a Schofield-led Alien game, it seems unlikely one's going to happen. Schofield said in July that he'd "decided to walk away" from a new horror game he'd been working on and that, due to a lack of funding, "maybe I've directed my last game."
Thankfully, we have a handy guide to the best space games you can play right now.
