EA Redwood Shores Developing Dead Space Wii Prequel

Electronic Arts is launching an incarnation of survival horror title Dead Space built for the Wii, the company announced today. Developed by the Redwood Shores studio and titled Dead Space: Extraction, it acts as a prequel to the October 2008 game released on next-gen platforms and PC. According to EA, Dead Space: Extraction will treat the events leading up to the previous game and use the Wii's motion controls with a first-person perspective. In the story, a group of space colonists struggles to escape an infection plaguing the Aegis VII mining colony in deep space. Extraction will add a new heroine to the canon, as the crew's tasked with her protection as they fall victim to the contagion. The game also promises to introduce other new characters, weapons and puzzles, and will feature co-operative multiplayer. EA CEO John Riccitiello recently discussed Dead Space on Wii earlier this month alongside the company's third quarter financial results. As EA struggles to recoup the impact of an underperforming holiday portfolio -- which included Dead Space -- the CEO said Wii would get "half our emphasis" with franchise incarnations of the company's "core intellectual property "custom-made for the platform. "We could not be more excited to extend Dead Space into an experience exclusive to the Wii," says EA Redwood Shores vice president and general manager Glen Schofield. "Nintendo has a wonderful history in the horror genre and we are thrilled to build on that tradition with Dead Space Extraction." "As we were developing Dead Space, we realized that there was so much of the story going untold. Dead Space Extraction tells that story with all of the intensity, blood and gore that fans would expect."