Vapourware System Shock 3 by OtherSide Entertainment - taken over by Tencent!

[MasterLobar]

Fact is, Starbreeze still has a $7 million investment in Otherside. I wouldn't completely write off SS3 just yet. Once OS formally declares bankruptcy, what they have created so far regarding SS3 - per my understanding - goes to Starbreeze. They could then give it to an own new team, team up with a second publisher to complete the game, or sell it to someone who wants to make it. The least attractive option for Starbreeze is to just let it die and let their investment sink forever. They are going to look for options to make it happen.

How exactly, I do not know, but I would be surprised if there were no move to revive it at some point. Only safe thing is no one will ever do it while the Otherside guys are still involved. After they screwed up everyone including investors, customers, backers and employees, no one is going to want to work with them anymore, so they have to get out of the way first.

 

[Katana1000S]

Its true Lobar, those bastards have nailed their colours to the mast now and forever and for all to see their lying deceitful ways.

Only the dumb, the stupid like Efe and Razorfist still stand up for this train wreck ... but they stood up for UA too and still do??? ... and that's borderline cult worship lunatic stuff that needs watching in the real world by the authorities ... fucking idiots, pure day release imbeciles on probable supervised day release from a local nervous hospital is my guess? they really are dumb fucks.

Anyway, its over and finished, lets move on please let SS3 RIP. at least until someone competent might come along to do it properly ... we still got that SS1 remake happening, its coming along nicely, its better than nothing and a 1000 times better than this 81 page vapourware shit.

Lets move on please.

Someone was asking SSD's and ram, might be selling mine soon due to forthcoming PC upgrade, let me know.

 

[rbenchley]

Once OS formally declares bankruptcy, what they have created so far regarding SS3 - per my understanding - goes to Starbreeze.

Does it? Otherside doesn't own the rights to System Shock as they just licensed the rights to make System Shock 3 from Night Dive. When Otherside declares bankruptcy, it would make sense for the game assets to go to Starbreeze, but I'm not sure the license to the intellectual property would transfer over. I'm guessing that Starbreeze would have to come to some kind of agreement with Night Dive before they could make their own version of a new System Shock game. Of course, I'm not a lawyer, so I might be talking out of my ass.

 

[LESS T_T]

It's been said Otherside owns copyrights to SS3.

 

[MasterLobar]

Not a lawyer either, but I think the license is an intangible asset that creditors get control over once bankruptcy happens. In any way, as I understand it, the creditor could take over the entire company in such an event. Unless the use of the license is somehow tied to the current OS management (not sure if that's even possible legally), whoever takes over the keys once OS is bankrupt is going to have the license to make SS3 as well. Just my understanding, not necessarily a very informed opinion.

 

[Efe]

it is possible if they set it up like how obsidian handles pillars franchise.

 

[karnak]

wow!! actual positive news from the games industry for once. didnt think the day would actually come but i guess being a toxic pessimist actually pays off once every few years?

i can only hope this means that otherside's already a hollowed out corpse of a studio or, at the very least, on the verge of fucking dying. there may actually be decent, talented people who lost their jobs over this bullshit, which sucks, but ultimately i think this is the best possible outcome. over the years ive become more and more convinced that the beer guy from looking glass's closing party must have spiked their beer supply with bleach or some shit because they literally all have terminal boomeritis. there hasnt been a single looking glass alumnus thats done anything even remotely noteworthy since the mid 2000s or so - they all have fucking brain damage. yes, paul neurath is a conman and warren is a washed up senile piece of shit who hasnt worked on a legitimately great game since deus ex (and honestly, harvey smith, sheldon pacotti, and the rest of the entire fucking team should get more credit for deus ex because i sincerely doubt warren had anything to do with it being so fucking good) but he's not the only one that's lost his mind over the years. just look at terri brosius's twitter, all she fucking does is retweet the most basic anti-trump propaganda imaginable, this bitch unironically retweeted motherfucking mike bloomberg's campaign account, she's as pro establishment as it gets. there's no fucking hope for these people, they're deranged washed up ex-mit boomers who have absolutely no idea how to develop a videogame in [current year] and underworld ascendant is physical proof of this, so much so that im surprised that more looking glass fanatics werent tearing it apart, it's comedically bad.

underworld ascendant also proves that if anyone is actually physically capable of continuing the legacy that looking glass left behind in may 2000, it sure as hell isnt looking glass themselves - the industry left them behind ages ago, and honestly, as much as i hate to say it, good fucking riddance. it's absolutely tragic but it's the painful fucking truth. i've seen a bunch of people point at arkane and call them The Next Looking Glass™, but not only are they owned by the corrupt, nightmarish, gluttonous elder demon that calls itself "zenimax media incorporated" in our tongue, but its been like 20 fucking years and they havent turned out a single game thats on par with any of the old looking glass classics. like, ok, dishonored is a decent game, viktor antonov's art is nice, but it isnt as revolutionary or atmospheric as thief 1 and 2 (or even deadly shadows), it's just kind of ok i guess? theyre not awful but at best, i still think of them as a looking class cover band - they're fine, they sort of understand what it was that made what they're covering good, but it just isn't the same. nothing else is, really. we can only sit and fucking hope that the fans (and maybe some ambitious indie devs) carry on looking glass's legacy in the decades to come.

looking glass has been dead for almost 20 goddamn years and otherside getting fucked over is just the icing on the cake - long live looking glass.

There's a lesson to be learned here.
Just look at the "return" of the old legends this last decade. The magnificent works of "titans" like Richard Garriott, Fargo & friends. Even Sid Meier and Julian Gollop can only copy their own previous works and even those efforts turn out mediocre at best.
Loss of intelectual capacity is a fact. I now that myself since I can feel it on myself every fucking day. And I consider myself quite lucky, since most of the guys who I grew up with (some of whom I considered to be intelectually my superiors) are now reduced to a bunch of babbling idiots, almost incapable of producing a single original thought and spending their entire days repeating the same platitudes over and over and over.

Old age is shit! I only hope that later generations will somehow manage to salvage anything out of the wreck and create brave new things in the future.

 

[Katana1000S]

Efe is a shithead

 

[Jenkem]

codex fundraiser to buy the copyrights to SS3 when?

 

[Katana1000S]

Just bury it, cremate it even

 

[ZeniBot]

codex fundraiser to buy the copyrights to SS3 when?

*Giving a shit about Intellectual Property after all our best beloved IPs have been ass raped by corporate conmen.*

Why not just invent something new. Too many bad memories now. Fuck this industry for ruining every good memory I ever had about video games- specifically DOS games.

 

[MasterLobar]

Do we actually know who is still with Otherside (looking at you, LESS T_T )?

I checked quickly and it seems Will Teixeira is still there. Also heard nothing from Tim Stellmach, so I assume he is also still around.

We know they laid off (almost?) the entire Austin team. Could it be possible that they retained some of the Boston core staff, assigned those to work on SS3 and those are now trying to finish the content side of the game? (cc: Kin Corn Karn)

That's the only way how I could possibly make sense of the current situation.

 

[taxalot]

Remember when they laid off Black Isle and they announced that three people were actually still working there, for now ?

I remember.

Whoever is left working at Otherside is busy cleaning the offices, filing the bankruptcy paperwork, trying to sell what can be sold, and then switch off the lights.

 

[Katana1000S]

And that is the bottom line ... last one out of the building, please switch off the lights.

Lets move on folks, this was a cluster fuck.

 

[Atrachasis]

Not a lawyer either, but I think the license is an intangible asset that creditors get control over once bankruptcy happens. In any way, as I understand it, the creditor could take over the entire company in such an event.

Not a lawyer either, but I would consider this unlikely unless the IP license has been pledged as a collateral for a primary loan from Starbreeze to OSE. Typically, a business will have multiple creditors, so its assets cannot automatically go to one of them in case of insolvency, but rather, the assets would be liquidated, i.e. sold off one by one, and the cash distributed among the creditors.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[anvi]

RIP investors money

 

[udm]

Even the plant outside their office looks dead af

 

[Latelistener]

And... nothing of value was lost.

 

[Katana1000S]

Still no official announcement though ... talk about denial, sad sad sad but glad glad glad these fools never got to destroy the System Shock franchise too.

 

[JDR13]

Does this mean it definitely won't be out before Christmas? Asking for a friend.

 

[MasterLobar]

It was clear for some time that they can't go on with two offices. I predicted a while ago that they are going to have to close one of them, although I thought they'd close Boston and go on in Austin. Now it is the other way around. They transferred the Austin project to Boston.

I predict: ... OS Boston is going to be closed as a cost-cutting measure and the UA and SS3 teams are going to be merged.

They laid off the Austin team, but I haven't seen anything indicating the departure of e.g., Tim Stellmach or Will Teixeira. I assume a small team is now working on it in Boston and trying to at least publish something.

It should be noted, however, that Kin Corn Karn rejected that theory.

I haven't been there in awhile, but the Austin studio appears to have closed. Boston had no involvement in SS3, I'm skeptical they would take over.

Whatever they try, it will be an uphill battle, because the first $6.8 million of sales they'd make would go to Starbreeze. The game would have to be a really good seller if it was supposed to make a profit for them, and it has to be a real hit if it'S supposed to keep them alive and finance a follow-up project.

 

[LESS T_T]

I also doubt Boston team would take over SS3.

If Boston studio still has some developers, I'd imagine they will try to fund their own unannounced project (supposedly Thick as Thieves, a Thief-like game). Like I posted in the UA thread, after UA disaster the Boston team somehow has hired experienced and specialized engineers and switched the engine to Unreal for the new project. Unless the reinforced Boston team couldn't produce something presentable for over a year of time since the released of UA, I guess it's more reasonable for Boston studio try to fund their own project than taking other team's project and spend yet another months to adapt it.

 

[Wunderbar]

Wtf, another Otherside branch is developing a thief successor?!

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

If Boston studio still has some developers, I'd imagine they will try to fund their own unannounced project (supposedly Thick as Thieves, a Thief-like game).

Googled out of curiosity, found this:
https://www.bostonherald.com/2007/12/14/thick-as-thieves-is-the-real-steal/

"Sitting in Boston’s Other Side Cafe, the three remaining members of Thick as Thieves expressed grief about losing Harmon’s instrumental talents, which include proficiency on the cello, guitar and keyboards."

So that's where they steal all those names from. Cafés and bands?