Dead Space, along with so much sci-fi horror, probably wouldn't exist without Alien. Ridley Scott set the bar high, and for close to 50 years the xenomorph's first outing has informed what people want and expect from their cosmic nightmares.
So it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that Dead Space creator and The Callisto Protocol director Glen Schofield would be up for taking a crack at the series—though he'd rather create more original games.
He's a fan, though, to the point where he likes to muck around in Midjourney creating different xenomorphs. Everyone needs a hobby.
"Let's say I took on a licence," he says. "Which I really don't want to do; I want to make my own. Let's say somebody came to me and said, 'We're going to give you the Alien licence.' Immediately I could show you, I don't know, maybe 100 different aliens I've made in Midjourney over the last two years, just because I like it. So yeah, I would love to make an Alien game."
Getting to dabble in a huge, long-running universe usually comes with some caveats and restrictions, though. It's why, for instance, you're probably never going to see a Star Wars adaptation where someone hangs dong. Disney doesn't do dong.
If 20th Century Studios—which is owned by Disney—was to give Schofield the reins, however, he wouldn't do it unless he had complete creative control. "I have to own the creative," he says. "That's not even negotiable. Because I won't make a great game unless it's mine and I'm so ingrained in it—then I will give you 130%."
Thanks to Aliens: Dark Descent, we're no longer living in a world where the last decent Alien game was Isolation (which is also getting a sequel), but it still feels like a property that has a lot left to offer. The new TV show, Alien: Earth, has reinvigorated the series after an exhausting run of disappointments (though Romulus was pretty good!) while making the universe feel so much larger.
Now the xenomorphs get to share the spotlight with even more horrific monsters, like blood-sucking alien leeches who can impregnate you, or tentacled eyeballs who can turn your body into their puppet. There's so much potential for new levels of vomit-inducing body horror.
Cool your jets, though. The way Schofield talks about games makes it clear he's still got that bug—the desire to create. But the current state of the industry means that we shouldn't count on him directing any more of them, let alone a new Alien game.
In July, he wrote a post on LinkedIn about a project he'd been developing with his daughter, Nicole Schofield, an environment artist who previously worked with her father on The Callisto Protocol.
"We pulled the budget down to $17 million, built a prototype with a small, talented crew, and started taking meetings," he wrote. "People loved the concept. We got a lot of second and third meetings. But early feedback was "get it to $10M." Lately, that number's dropped to $2–5M. So last month, we decided to walk away. Some ideas are better left untouched than done cheap."
Publishers and investors are becoming more risk averse, stalwart franchises are struggling, and studios that have been around for decades are being torn apart. It's bleak. And Schofield himself has taken some hits. After The Callisto Protocol missed publisher Krafton's sales target, he stepped down as CEO of Striking Distance Studios. Since then, most of the development team has been laid off.
"I miss it all," Schofield said. "The team, the chaos, the joy of building something for fans. I'm still around, making art, writing stories and ideas and still cheering the industry on. But maybe I've directed my last game. Who knows? If so, thank you [for] playing my games."
