Dead Space Preview

VideoGamer.com: So is that pressure having an effect on the way games are made across the industry?

CB: Absolutely. It's kind of weird even that there'd be such an explosion in new intellectual property, given that's its so risky. It kind of flies in the face of all that. I don't really know if people feel like licensing has run its course, that's where it's all done now. You go on with more of the wholly-owned properties. The ideas are fresher, the creative heights you can get to are stronger and you build your own solutions to problems - so it's a risk you're willing to take.

DY: The interesting thing too that we've talked about a little bit is our new CEO John Riccitiello. He's been our CEO for almost two years now, right? It's been 15 to 18 months, something like that. Interestingly enough, one of the tenets he wanted to bring in when he took over was to focus on quality. A large focus on quality, and a large focus on trainee, fledgling titles. It was easy from our standpoint on the ground to be like, "Well, we're not really too sure. This new guy just came back in" [to the company]. But we've really seen that, over the course of Dead Space. A few years ago Dead Space would have been... there's no chance it would have happened. And we're seeing lots of other opportunities where people are able to explore doing new and original IP, which is really exciting.

VideoGamer.com: Why do you think EA is taking that direction now?

CB: A lot of it is... It kinda boils down to the numbers. If you look at the actual financials behind the intellectual properties, we're not paying the license fees out, like on some of the previous properties we've had. Because of course the royalties go out the door on those and that affects your return, your final turnover. So we're trying to become more efficient. The other reason is, "You know what? Let's make our own properties. Let's own these things." And now EA is also awakening to... It's kind of been a dormant fact for a long time, but we've already got properties in house - intellectual properties like that can be farmed to other media, like movies and comics. So EA is getting wise about monetising its properties, and owning more of them.

VideoGamer.com: Is there more of an appetite for that kind of thing now?

DY: I think things have improved a lot. The gaming industry had become such a huge thing, right? It was only a few years ago that the games industry surpassed the movie industry in terms of revenue, and so that was definitely something that... well, people noticed it. "Hey, this game industry is here to stay, it's not just a bunch of old kids playing. It's mass market."

CB: Especially with things like ComicCon. Over the last couple of years the cross-media have just taken off, and we're a part of that.

VideoGamer.com: Are games more respected as a medium, these days?

CB: I would think so, especially when you've some of the MMOs going out to 10 million subscribers...

DY: You've got some serious mainstream crossover going on now.

VideoGamer.com: Okay, our last question is a two parter. First up, we've heard that Dead Space has already been banned in some countries, including Japan - is that true?

CB: We haven't been banned anywhere yet, but you have to get rated by government in order to sell, and we're having difficulty getting ratings....

VideoGamer.com: OK. While we're sure from a sales point of view you'd like the game to be available everywhere, are you quite proud that you've managed to come up with something so messed up that some people won't touch it? Or are you thinking, "Eesh, we shouldn't have done that!"? [/B]

CB: [Laughter] Yes, you could say that! We were going for our M rating in the United States, we wanted a real, true-to-the-horror-genre game we could put out - and the fact that it's got some controversy is an indicator that we're exactly where we wanted to be.

DY: Absolutely!

VideoGamer.com: Thanks guys!

Dead Space will be released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 24. The PC version will follow on October 31.