Dead Space 3 gets new launch trailer

EA recently released a new trailer for its upcoming survival horror game, Dead Space 3. The trailer, titled Take Down the Terror, features gameplay footage with music playing in the background. It shows series protagonist Isaac Clarke exploring a planet and finding and killing strange beasts.

Dead Space 3 has been the subject of a controversy surrounding the presence of micro-transactions in the full game. The controversy stems from the fact that the implementation of the micro-transactions has been deemed “immersion breaking”, and that it can make the game much easier than it should be. Fans are also worried that the game may be balanced around the micro-transactions, and as a result, players may be forced to pay for the in-game resources instead of simply finding them by playing.

This is a problem because the game is based on surviving with the resources you can find and having these resources available at the touch of a button could potentially take away from the gameplay experience.

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“You can buy resources with real money, but scavenger bots can also give you the currency that you can use on the marketplace,” Dead Space 3 Associate Producer Yara Khoury explained to Eurogamer. “So you don’t have to spend [real world] dollars.”

While Khoury did not divulge information on how much the “DLC” would cost, she did mention several different packs of in-game currency being available and priced at varying amounts.

Poor Isaac

When asked if a player could possibly just buy parts for the best weapon in the game right at the start, Khoury replied, “No you can’t! There are a lot of weapon parts that are only available to buy later in the game. Unless you’re playing through it again [on New Game Plus].”

Dead Space 3 would be the first game in the series to feature a micro-transaction system. Another unlikely candidate for micro-transactions that EA managed was the multiplayer component of last year’s Mass Effect 3. The game featured micro-transactions to buy trading card-styled “booster packs” of randomised weapons, abilities and power-ups.

While micro-transactions aren’t exactly unheard of in a game, it is generally a source of revenue used by developers of free-to-play games like League of Legends or Tribes: Ascend.

EA recently announced the Dev Team Edition for Dead Space 3. The Dev Team Edition for Dead Space 3 features a bunch of extra goodies, including a giant metal case for the whole set. It also includes artwork and lithographs, along with a figurine of a Marker, an S.C.A.F. Jotter and a notebook that further fleshes the universe out, among others.

Dead Space 3 is set to come out on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC on February 8, 2013.