Visceral Games hasn’t had the opportunity to release Dead Space 2 to the public just yet, but already the team behind the survival-horror title is looking ahead to Dead Space 3. While this should delight fans of the franchise, it should be mentioned that Visceral is also wanting to do a “Dead Space 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 20.” Hopefully, with all of this ambition to drive the franchise to a 20th installment it won’t fall victim to the same things the likes of Tomb Raider and Sonic has in terms of milkage and a subpar quality product.

Speaking with Eurogamer this morning, Steve Papoutsis, executive producer on Dead Space 2, explained the complicated process in which Dead Space 2 will have to go through in order for a trilogy title to be developed and given the green light by Electronic Arts.

“We’ve mapped out where we’d like to go with it. Not at a super high level of detail. But, for instance, we’ve just released our novel, Martyr. We’ve talked about the inception of the Unitology religion. We’ve thought about it all. But ultimately, just like with Dead Space 2, we have to have the support from the players in order to do it. Hopefully the game comes out, people like it, it has critical support, and a lot of people buy it. And then we’ll get an opportunity to do another one.

“Nobody’s going to just let you go and do another game just because. You have to have the people that are interested in it. That was what was great about Dead Space 2. There was such an outpouring of support that it was easy for us to get the company behind it and give us the opportunity to make it.

“Games are complex and expensive. It really helps when you’ve got a lot of people who are excited and supportive of what you’re doing. We can do great things when that happens. But when there isn’t an outpouring of support it doesn’t make a lot of sense to do that. We’re working really hard to make sure this game’s better so we get a chance to do Dead Space 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 and 20.”

It should go without saying that the first iteration of this original IP was a blast to play and surprisingly enough deserves Game of the Year recognition, but I’m kind of skeptical about bringing the franchise to the level of even a 5th installment let alone 20th. I understand the game world is vast since it takes place in space, but do you really want to pre-order Dead Space 20?