E3 is only a few days away now with EA scheduled to make some big announcements on June 4 during their press conference. One of those announcements has been rumored to be a new entry in Visceral Games’ excellent Dead Space franchise. A new video released today on the official Dead Space YouTube channel seems to confirm those rumors.

The video takes the form of a graphic novel tells the story of a new character in the Dead Space universe – John Carver. The short story shown here takes place on an icy planet called Uxor. That matches up with previous rumors that said Dead Space 3 would take place on an icy planet. It seems that Carver will be a lot of Isaac Clarke from the first Dead Space as he is on his way to look for his wife.

The video doesn’t give us much information in terms of what Dead Space 3 may entail besides the setting. It looks we can expect all manners of necromorphs including some big boss monters and some interesting new mechanics involving the frozen wasteland that is Uxor. Beyond that, we’ll have to wait till EA’s press conference where they will undoubtedly show the game.

How do we know that this is for Dead Space 3 though? The video originally appeared on the official Dead Space Web site and it contained a few treasures within its source code. Just like with the recent source code leak in regards to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, the Dead Space site source code mentions Dead Space 3 multiple times.

Whether or not the graphic novel ties into Dead Space 3, we can assume that there will be an announcement on Monday. EA has pushed Dead Space harder than any of their other new IPs this generation, much to the chagrin of Mirror’s Edge fans, but I think this is just the tip of the marketing muscle that EA will be putting behind the latest effort from the guys over at Visceral Games.

Check out the video in all its glory. If this truly is the direction that Dead Space 3 is headed, count me in.

[h/t: Joystiq]