Dead Space Game

Glen Schofield and Michael Cowdrey are the authors of the science fiction/horror media series Dead Space. Visceral Games is the franchise's developer, while Electronic Arts is the property's publisher and owner. The Dead Space franchise's chronology is not presented in a linear fashion; rather, each game is a continuation or addition to an ongoing narrative, with certain parts appearing in prequels or sequels and occasionally in other media from the original video game series, which also includes two movies, a number of comic books, and novels.

The Dead Space franchise is focused on a line of video games, starting with the release of the first Dead Space, which follows an engineer named Isaac Clarke and the mutated undead horrors that surround him. The games are primarily set in a science fiction universe from the 26th century with settings, weapons, and characters typical of the genre. The fictitious cult religion Unit ology and its fervent adherents, who think that knowledge about an extraterrestrial artifact called the Marker is being repressed by Earth's government, are a major motif in the games. Their main objective is to utilize this Marker to bring about the alleged "convergence" or "unification," with the Markers serving as the origin of the zombie creatures that the heroes of the series battle.

The Dead Space video game series has garnered favorable reviews; the original game in particular earned many industry awards for the unique gameplay and development it included, and is often cited by reviewers as one of the finest video games of all time. EA believed that the video game franchise as a whole had underperformed in terms of sales. Dead Space 3's commercial failure in 2013 led to the franchise's absence from media production for the duration of the 2010s. Motive Studio created a recreation of the original game, which was made available on January 27, 2023.

The Dead Space franchise is set in the future, where humanity has been able to colonize other planets. By the 23rd century, humanity has used up most of Earth's natural resources, and the world governing body, EarthGov, has fleets of "planet crackers", giant mining spaceships that harvest resources by breaking apart other planets, to gather materials for humanity to sustain itself. During the 23rd century, EarthGov researchers find an alien artifact in the Chicxulub crater, which they call the Marker. The Marker emits a persistent electromagnetic field from seemingly no source, which researchers believe could be used to provide limitless energy and solve Earth's ecological crisis. Work begins to reverse engineer the Marker on various research stations across the colonies, but they are forced to use bismuth instead of an unidentified alien material, resulting in these duplicates being colored red instead of black as the original.

The project was highly classified, but lead researcher Michael Altman leaked its existence to the world. EarthGov assassinates Altman hoping to quell the news, but it is too late: Altman is seen as a martyr, and his beliefs of what the Marker means for humanity form the basis of a new cult-like religion, Unitology, that rapidly spreads across Earth and the colonies. Univers Ologists believe that by worshiping the Marker, they will discover the true origin and meaning of human life. They also believe that the Marker grants eternal life and will help to unify humanity, as to "make us whole", in an event known as the "Convergence".

The EarthGov researchers also discover that the electromagnetic fields sent by the Marker and its duplicates cause living people to suffer paranoia and hallucinations, while also causing the dead to reanimate, becoming "Necromorphs", biological monstrosities which rise to attack the living. EarthGov immediately terminates the Marker project and abandons all research stations where the work had been done, covering up their locations, knowing as they do that the followers of Unitology would desperately want to seek these Markers out in order to advance their beliefs and bring about Convergence.

In the 26th century, a planet-cracker vessel mining the world of Aegis VII called the USG Ishimura discovers a Red Marker buried near an abandoned colony. The Ishimura captain, a devout Uni ologist, ordered his crew to bring the Marker aboard the ship, which causes the crew to become paranoid, turn on each other, and leads to a Necromorph infestation onboard the Ishimura. Among the crew of the Ishimura is a medical officer named Nicole Brennan, who sends a cryptic distress signal to her significant other out of desperation.