On Monday, NPD released video game sales numbers for September and for one Electronic Arts game, it wasn’t pretty. Dead Space Extraction, a prequel to 2008’s fantastic survival-horror title Dead Space sold only 9,000 units during the month.

Some of the seemingly sluggish sales could be attributed to Extraction releasing late in the month (Sept. 29, to be exact), but even so, the results are pretty disappointing for a franchise that sold 1.4 million units on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

One analyst blames the lack of marketing for sluggish sales, but also excused the lack thereof because of the market dynamics shifting.

“Electronic Arts didn’t market Dead Space Extraction as much as it does with other titles. And the success or failure of a Wii title usually correlates directly to marketing spend. If Electronic Arts spent little on marketing, I am sure the sell through was no surprise to them. So I do not believe sell through was a disappointment to EA,” EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich told Edge.

Divnich also pointed to the likelihood that Extraction was green-lighted when most publishers thought that there was still a chance for success with hardcore titles on the Wii. After sales data from games like MadWorld came in (and disappointed), EA dialed back marketing dollars and their expectations.

While it’s unfortunate that EA did not invest more heavily into Dead Space Extraction, (it was a damn fine game) the company was facing pretty strong headwinds with releasing a hardcore title on the Wii and likely wanted to lower costs and recoup development dollars as much as possible after it was clear they made a bad bet.