Did EA rip off an old idea?

[Hyncharas]

Upon hearing about the Ultra Limited Edition, I tried in vain looking for it as a UK customer. The funny thing is, however, I found something else of interest. This movie, Dead Space, was released in 1991 but its short synopsis is what caught my attention:

"A space jockey investigates a distress call from a research lab on a distant planet. There he meets a researcher who helps him stop a mysterious virus that mutates and kills people."

I understand that the story of the film is slightly different to the product being released in October but, come on... you guys didn't seriously steal and adapt another idea just to make the game, did you!?

[deelondon]

Hyncharas,

Can you accept an idea that totally different people could come up with a very similar concept? Take a look at deviantart.com, an art site where people are sharing their art, and you will notice this phenomena quickly. Carl Jung named this as the collective unconscious- Carl Jung - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm sorry if I sounded too aggressively- I was just calling for a discussion

[Riprie]

Cool! I'll check out that movie too. Also a lot of people on the Internet say that Dead Space the game is very similar to the movie The Thing. They also say that the PROTOTYPE is very similar to The Thing.

[ActiveXre]

Dead Space is a rip off of alot of things i think. But what does that matter,They took all this great ideas and turned it to a game (which i hope is a good game and not just another EA B-game). Rip-offs are good as long as the results are good.

[Hyncharas]

Originally Posted by Riprie

Cool! I'll check out that movie too. Also a lot of people on the Internet say that Dead Space the game is very similar to the movie The Thing. They also say that the PROTOTYPE is very similar to The Thing.

Yeah but those are both on Earth. Here are the comparisons:

• The movie takes place on a deep-space outpost:= Downfall starts on an outpost, and then moves to Ishimura for the game;
• An alien artefact is found:= although the movie has a cocoon, the game has a "hellgate"-type transmitter built by aliens who want to come back. Same diff;
• A virus turns humans into creatures that infect others:= this is exactly the same as the game. It infects you, mutates your body and then kills you... bringing you back as something else to spread the virus. It also affects the physical surroundings by consuming and changing the environment;
• You have allies but not for long:= in the movie you meet a team of researchers which get picked off one by one... in the game, you are an engineer whose team gets picked off one by one!

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Though there are a number of movies out there with similarities, the fact that one with the same name is pretty much identical with some twists seems more than a little suspicious.

I did see on Bloody Disgusting that someone is planning a scifi horror in 2010 (named Dead Space obviously), based on the game... of course, we all know how most game-movie adaptations turn out.

[Spidery Yoda]

Well if they did, never mind. There are only so many ideas out there.

'Researcher on deep space research station filled with infected monsters' is about as generic as you can get when it comes to ideas for things.

It's how they use the idea that's important. It's looking very good so far.

[deelondon]

Well, I just remembered one thing. In interview videos (in media section) producer revealed that his initial idea was to set action in a prison on an alien planet. Later, layer by layer the team transformed the concept into 'Dead Space'.

[phifflon]

System Shock 3 anyone?

[Dead_Hikikomori]

but anyway if you read the reviews it is actualy a rip-off of many game like resi-4 but they made it fresh and awsome.

[jeofoking]

System Shock 3 anyone?

[MettalicSnake]

You want the same eerie feel as Dead Space watch Event Horizon, Sunshine or Pandorum

[MidwichCuckoo]

There's nothing new under the sun...parts of the game reminded me of the 'Alien' quadrilogy.