OtherSide Entertainment Drops System Shock 3 Development; Chinese Tencent Now Holds the Reins

[Raevenlord]

This is likely not the piece of news any of us wanted to hear on the development of System Shock 3. As a sequel to one of the most well-considered gaming franchises of all time, however, development of such a game is bound to be rife with difficulties - especially for an indie studio such as OtherSide Entertainment, a sentiment the developers themselves took to Twitter). AS reports surfaced earlier this year that the entire team working on the project at OtherSide had been let go, health of the development (and confidence in its development) clearly wasn't soaring. Now, OtherSide has confirmed that development of System Shock 3 has ceased - and has passed the mantle to Chinese giant Tencent.

Tencent has thus acquired the rights for development of a sequel to the System Shock franchise - Nightdive Studios, holders of the IP that licensed it to OtherSide Entertainment, have already announced the change in carrier for the sequel hopes. OtherSide places their faith in Tencent's "deep capabilities and expertise as a leading video game company will bring the franchise to new heights". Whether or not that means starting from scratch is up in the air right now, but one thing is certain: the game will take even longer than expected to release. A blue screen of death for Shodan, pending a reboot.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[seccentral]

System Shock, of all titles, is to be developed by a corporation who is owned by the ccp. The irony.

 

[sepheronx]

Oh bummer. I was looking forward to it after seeing the trailer. Depressing.

 

[silentbogo]

At least now we know for sure that the horse is dead-dead.
As soon as Nightdive switched from factual updates to silly "dev-blog" Twitch streaming format, I knew it ain't gonna go far (regardless of "remake-sequel" debate).
Passing the project onto Otherside was the final nail in the coffin, and this is just birds pooping on the headstone.

 

[xkm1948]

System shock, some good old memories

 

[bug]

Good, now it will come with micro-transactions

 

[lexluthermiester]

This news sucks. Was looking forward to SS3... Ultra lame.

 

[Lionheart]

Great... First thing Shodan's gonna to say is "China Number One"

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Disappointing for sure, I seriously doubt it wont hold true to the OGs

 

[ZoneDymo]

Now if only they could develop an AI to make the game for them hmmmm

 

[Octopuss]

Why would anyone sell shit to the chinese? Aren't there tons of better places a game development can go?

 

[silentbogo]

Aren't there tons of better places a game development can go?

I'm guessing initially they've got an offer from Epic, and later, when it was too late, it got passed down the feeding tube to Tencent.

 

[Octopuss]

I don't care about the game, never played any SS, but I just find it bizarre that anyone from the western world would do this. Yes it's money (at least I hope it was sold), but jesus fking christ, why chinese of all things?

 

[Vayra86]

Interesting. Let's see what Tencent will do with it.

So far they seem very keen on simply lots of presence in the market. I've not seen a strong political influence in anything Tencent is affiliated in. EGS is also clear of it.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth here... gaming needs budget and Tencent has that in spades. Its also not like we're tied to them in any way. Just make sure your BS detector is active while browsing.

One thing was crystal clear though, the game wasn't going places with its current studio. Clearly a project that was driven more by nostalgia than proper development. As much as I would have liked it to have gone gold.