Several of our sources are whispering to us today that developer Visceral Games has received the “green light” to start increasing their staff to start production of the next chapter in the Dead Space franchise, which we are calling at the moment Dead Space 2.

According to what our sources tell us, the initial design is finished and some development is already in progress, but the signal to ramp up development is more of a sign that the initial pre-production work has been completed; and publisher Electronic Arts is satisfied with the direction that the sequel will be going.

From what we can figure out, the sequel will be developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms. A possible Wii version might be in the cards once Dead Space 2 is completed for these platforms, but this is only a guess.

The original Dead Space did very well for EA, with sales that are said to be over 1.4 million units.  Because of this fact alone, EA is likely trying to make sure that they have their ducks in a row so the sequel will be successful when it is released. According to our sources, the decision by EA not to rush has more to do with the company trying to make smarter decisions and more thorough evaluations in the pre-production stages before moving forward to hopefully produce a higher quality and better selling product when the title is released.