Visceral grows, working on four new titles

EA has announced ambitious expansion plans for Dead Space developer Visceral Games.

EA exec Nick Earl told Gamasutra that Visceral, who also made last year's Dante's Inferno, would become EA's dedicated third person action developer, producing at least a game a year.

Five executive producers will each oversee a separate franchise at the California-based studio.

"We've gone to this collaborative model, all under the umbrella brand of Visceral," Earl explained.

"Each of the franchises we have in development, from Dead Space 2, which is close to final, to some IP that are literally in ideation... has a distinct team, and that team is spread across three or four studios. We're not outsourcing or insourcing - we really look at it as collaborative development, where everyone is on equal playing ground."

One of the five brands Earl referred too is obviously Dead Space, but there's no confirmation on what the other four might be.

Earlier this week, Visceral's Zach Mumbach stated that the studio was not currently working on a follow-up to Dante's Inferno, ruling that franchise out of the running.

However, last year EA revealed that Visceral had begun work on a game based around infamous 19th-century serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Visceral will be sharing resources with EA Los Angeles, EA Montreal, the publisher's art-focused Shanghai studio and its brand new outpost in Melbourne, Australia.

The reason for this show of good faith? Apparently gamers just can't get enough of Visceral's work.

"We believe - and we have a lot of data on this - that there's tremendous admiration and like for the Visceral brand," says Earl. "We're leaning in to the fact that there's such momentum with this brand, and we have a lot of faith in Dead Space 2."

The original Dead Space won a 7/10 from Eurogamer, whereas Dante's Inferno could only manage 6/10.

You can find out for yourself whether EA are backing the right horse when Dead Space 2 arrives on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 25th January 2011.