Dead Space 2 is the 2011 follow-up to the horror cult classic, 2008’s Dead Space. Dead Space was among the first original IP entries from EA Redwood Shores, who had predominantly been producing licensed games to that point. Dead Space was the reformed origins of a failed pitch for System Shock 2 under the guidance of gaming juggernaut Glen Schofield. 

While EA Redwood Shores didn’t land the System Shock 2 development contract, they did have some magic on their hands from the original game pitch. With EA’s blessing, EA Redwood Shores took their original ideas and developed the first Dead Space game. As a great philosopher once said, when one door closes, an airlock opens.

Under the guidance of executive producer Glen Schofield, the team set out to make Dead Space the scariest game of all time. They largely succeeded, with positive reviews and selling around a million copies in the first year of release. 

Following the prompt greenlighting of a sequel, EA Redwood Shores was rebranded as Visceral Games, marking the first genre-specific studio within EA’s game development umbrella. After this transition, Schofield departed from Visceral to co-found Sledgehammer Games and eventually became the CEO of Striking Distance Studios. With new leadership in place, Visceral faced heightened pressure to deliver results.

EA had faith in Dead Space 2, sinking nearly $60 million into the production and marketing of the title. That healthy budget allocated for a robust cast, intricate level design, and the most bonkers and badass marketing campaign to bless the gaming world. 

In anticipation of the January 2011 release of Dead Space 2, the team organized focus groups to review the upcoming content. Visceral worked with the San Francisco branch of FCB West to execute the focus groups and ad campaign. 

Most major releases across all media have focus groups to hone in on what the public enjoys- this isn’t wild. The wild part is that these focus groups were predominantly conservative moms who were largely horrified at the content of Dead Space 2. 

Around two hundred women participated in what they believed was a general focus group as market research participants. The women were individually ushered into small conference rooms to view clips from an upcoming video game. The footage begins with sweeping shots of Titan Station, then quickly gets into protagonist Issac Clarke severing the limbs off necromorphs and watching mutated monsters, some massive, some miniature, attack Issac. The footage is absolutely top-to-bottom body horror and sci-fi gore. 

For pearl-gripping American mothers, it was the absolute worst thing in the world. 

The moms described the footage as “gross,” “terrible,” “horrible,” and “terrifying,” among other things. One mom indirectly accused the creators of the game of being on crystal meth. 

The team cut footage from the focus groups and some in-game footage and released a several-part campaign called “Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2”. 

The concept was simple but effective (as most great marketing campaigns tend to be) and drove back to the aptly-named website, yourmomhatesdeadspace2.com (now defunct). The website housed even more mortified mothers blind reacting to decapitations and vomiting, as well as information on the game release. 

The campaign was an absolute delight for those with a sense of humor and a strong stomach. Fans even reacted to the campaign with their own mothers, sparking a series of gamers filming their mothers reacting to Dead Space 2 footage. 

But, as with most good things in media, some people took a fun, creative campaign as a personal assault on their values. 

A family advocacy group called Common Sense Media was outraged by the ad campaign and issued a letter to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). Common Sense Media believed that the campaign violated the ESRB’s Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Advertising Practices by targeting younger gamers with the ads, despite Dead Space 2 being rated M for Mature. The ESRB replied that the ad clearly states that the game is not suitable for children under the age of 18 and took no action against Visceral or the FCB West. 

Ironically, Common Sense Media delivered a perfect 5/5 rating for Dead Space 2 on their website. 

Dead Space 2 is largely remembered as the strongest entry in the franchise, with fantastic performances, a wide range of necromorph variants, and engaging battle sequences. The marketing campaign, however, transcended the genre and was cool as hell. 

Do you remember the glory days of the coolest campaign ever? Does your mom hate Dead Space 2? Let us know in the comments!