"Dead Space 3" only sold 605,000 copies yet managed to top the NPD sales charts for February, 2013.
Despite selling the most copies, lackluster sales across the board seemed to hamper the industry this month and, given its sales, it seems likely that "Dead Space 3" did not match EA's projections. According to Joystiq, the sequel's sales were stronger than the original "Dead Space," which sold 500,000 copies, and "Dead Space 2," which sold more than double that.
"Dead Space 3" was discounted on PC and consoles by multiple retailers, including Groupon and Amazon, shortly after release, an early indicator that the game wasn't flying off store shelves.
Earlier this month, Videogamer.com reported that an anonymous EA employee claimed that EA cancelled "Dead Space 4," which was already in production, after "Dead Space 3" failed reach internal sales goals. Multiple reps for EA and developer Visceral claimed the report was inaccurate. EA COO Peter Moore denied the report, accusing the site of "fabricating" their source.
Given the amount of energy EA put into the game, it's doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to inferr that "Dead Space 3" is, at least initially, a financial failure in EA's eyes. Then again, it also sounds like February may have just been a slow month and there may be time for it to become one of few games that bounces back down the line.