Dead Space executive producer Steve Papoutsis has let slip that Visceral Games’ stellar survival horror outing could have been scrapped ‘at any minute’ during development had publisher EA felt it wasn’t up to scratch.
Speaking during a recent interview, Papoutsis spilled the beans on EA’s old ‘crunch culture’ shenannigans, revealing Visceral felt ‘immense pressure’ while coding away on the futuristic horror romp.
“With [the first] Dead Space, any time we showed it [to EA] there was immense pressure," he commented. "At any minute we might have got cancelled, they might have said, ‘This isn’t making any progress, we don’t like it.’"
Still, Papoutsis and co adopted a simple philosophy while working on the project: "Games are forever, pain is temporary," he explained. "So when you’re working hard on something, in the short term it may be tough – but at the end you’re going to have this thing forever that people are going to get to enjoy."
Visceral Games is currently working on a sequel, Dead Space 2, which is scheduled for release in January 2011 on PS3, PC and 360.