"Dead Space 4" has been canceled following lower than expected sales of "Dead Space 3," says Videogamer.com.
An anonymous source tells the publication that "Dead Space 4," which is unannounced, was in pre-production at Visceral Games. Visceral Games developed the previous three entries in the well-received series.
The cancelation of the project lead to lay-offs and the shuttering of Visceral Games Montreal, the report says.
The Xbox 360 version of "Dead Space 3" is currently the 14th best selling title for the week globally while the PS3 version sits at number 21, according to VGchartz.
Update: EA tells Gamasutra that rumors of "Dead Space 4" cancellation are "patently false."
Update 2: Dino Ignacio, a developer at Visceral Games, tweets: "The reports of our death were greatly exaggerated. Please stand by."
Update 3: An EA spokesperson tells Joystiq,"While we have not announced sales for Dead Space 3, we are proud of the game and the franchise remains an important IP to EA."
Update 4: Peter Moore, EA's chief operating officer, took to the comments section of Gameindustry to denounce the original article. "Standard, shoddy website journalism recipe, born out of a desperate need to increase click-thru rates to support advertising revenue. Fabricate a story using an "unnamed source", post it first thing in the morning, add the letters" EA" to the story (oh, and link it to micro-transactions - always a fan favourite) and then stand back and enjoy the vitriol which you turn into revenue. Rinse and repeat."