For those who haven’t heard yet, the doors of Visceral Games have been shut and in the wake of the closing many developers have come forward to share their thoughts on various subjects. One of the most outspoken members being Zach Wilson who just recently revealed that Dead Space 2 was considered a sales disappointment, even with its 4 million copies sold. Wilson also explained that it wasn’t just the second in the Dead Space franchise to have difficulty, but that selling horror games is a challenge in general.

According to Wilson, the challenge of selling horror games is that they are they’re own worst enemies. Players aren’t buying horror games like Dead Space, Resident Evil, or Silent Hill because they’re “too scary”. It also takes quite a bit of money to create a horror title unlike the film industry which pumps out movies of the same genre on a lower budget and still be able to become box office successes. This in turn makes it hard for developers to create a major AAA game for this particular market:

Survival horror is hard. Horror games in general are expensive to make and hard to sell. People would give us the feedback that they love Dead Space but don’t buy it cause it’s too scary. Kind of works against itself.”

He also explains that it isn’t just the fact that these games are scary, part of the issue comes in a majority of horror titles being linear. With the current market for games, linear titles are slowly moving to the side to make way for the bigger, more easily marketable open world and multiplayer games. This is a problem when a majority of the experience is all about long dark corridors, dimly lit rooms, or any other structure that attempts to funnel the player into a controlled terrifying encounter.

Let us know your thoughts on the challenge of selling horror games and more in the comments section below. Do you think Wilson is correct or is he copping out in an effort to save face? Sound off with your take now! As always, don’t forget to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter for 24/7 coverage of all things gaming and entertainment.