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

[Sentinel]

Wasn't this game on kickstarter to begin with? Or was that just the remake of the original?

 

[MasterLobar]

TheSentinel Just the remake.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Wasn't this game on kickstarter to begin with? Or was that just the remake of the original?

Underworld Ascendant by OtherSide Entertainment and System Shock (reboot/remake) by Nightdive Studios were both on Kickstarter, raising respectively $860,356 and $1,350,700, but System Shock 3 by OtherSide has not (yet) been kickstarted.

 

[Sentinel]

I'd say "they know what to do" but setting up a kickstarter when you don't even have a team is kind of a problem.

 

[ZeniBot]

To be fair at least everyone was laid off. Nothing worse than a lockout because it means no one is getting paid.
This could've been worse. And Warren is most definitely confirmed cursed now. This is like the 3rd time now that this has happened on his watch. (Invisible War (*almost died they barely were able to ship), Junction Point (died in development), System Shock 3).

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Seriously, why is this happening? Why have they mismanaged this prohect so bad?

 

[hexer]

They don't need money at this point. They need people to actually make the game and it looks like there's no one there.

I can imagine the lone CEO being locked up in the empty offices simultaneously going through C++ and 3D modeling tutorials while nervously looking through window blinds from time to time checking if the debt collectors finally arrived

 

[Grauken]

Seriously, why is this happening? Why have they mismanaged this prohect so bad?

Managers who have always worked in larger organizations and aren't able to adapt to smaller teams with significantly smaller budgets burn through money really fast

 

[hexer]

Managers who have always worked in larger organizations and aren't able to adapt to smaller teams with significantly smaller budgets burn through money really fast

Managers are a cancer of any creative company.
Sometimes you miss the deadline because it's only a few of you working on a big project, not because you can't organize yourself

 

[Grauken]

I wouldn't go so far, you need people to organize projects, call them managers or whatever, team leaders, doesn't really matter. The real problem is that most managers are really bad at managing, and in large organizations get promoted less due to real skills and more due to politics. Even then, being a good manager in a large orga is completely different from one in very small teams, and if you don't change your approach fast, it can lead to terrible mismanagement

 

[hexer]

I worked in a corporation where out of 14 managers that were involved in a project only one (!!) had technical competence to actually understand what we were doing.
All the others had to be re-educated from time to time about what exactly they were responsible for.
But that's a larger issue, related to the corruption in the company and country

 

[Grauken]

I worked in a corporation where out of 14 managers that were involved in a project only one (!!) had technical competence to actually understand what we were doing.
All the others had to be re-educated from time to time about what exactly they were responsible for.
But that's a larger issue, related to the corruption in the company and country

14 managers for one project sounds a bit overkill

 

[hexer]

14 managers for one project sounds a bit overkill

Yes, 14 managers and 3 workers Never again!

 

[Sodafish]

14 managers for one project sounds a bit overkill

Yes, 14 managers and 3 workers Never again!

What the actual fuck.

 

[hexer]

What the actual fuck.

A government-owned bank where 85% of employees have a credit loan, do nothing all day, and bank earns more money off them than it loses.
It was just the 15% of us fools working hard to keep the place from falling apart.

 

[MasterLobar]

Starbreeze's Q4 2019 report is out.
https://www.starbreeze.com/sbz-media/2020/02/Starbreeze-Year-End-Report-Q4-2019.pdf

Still says "The sale of the publishing rights to System Shock 3 and Psychonauts 2 was arranged so that Starbreeze will recover its investment over time." (p.26, emphasis added) as they did in Q1 through Q3. I think they take this as just describing the technicalities of how IFRS treats the resale of the publishing rights. Still sounds like a legal risk to me that they say they "will recover" their investment, although it must be clear to them they will not get a penny from Otherside.

In their Q1 2019 report, they also said that "Starbreeze expects to be fully compensated for the costs the company has incurred in connection with development of the game." (p.4)
https://www.starbreeze.com/sbz-media/2019/05/Starbreeze-Interim-Report-Q1-2019.pdf

That language has been absent in all reports since Q2 2019. They know they dumped all their money in a bottomless pit.

 

[Katana1000S]

Now a major site: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...hock-3-development-team-is-no-longer-employed

Still no official response.

Why do the news sites keep linking to page 76? The dev started posting in page 71.

The bad news started on page one post one, thank god it never came to fruition, an SS3 would be fine if done sincerely, but look what they did with Underworld Ascendant, we had a lucky escape with these morons in charge, the would have fucked it up so badly ... none of us should have any doubt about that.

Can you imagine how it would have panned out, they would have probably even have given it a ridiculous new moniker like they did with UA to appeal to half wits like Razorfist and Efe ... something like "SS3 the Arcade adventure" run on walls and ceilings, "parkour the fuck out of Shodan with our (bleah) innovative (sic) exciting new arcade gameplay" memes.

Thank fuck these buffoons never got to ruin this franchise too. Nobody likes to see people lose jobs, of course not, but perhaps now they can go onto something more suited to their talents (they had it but lost it) and leave the franchise open for someone/some team to do it proper justice in the future, some team more committed to the task of creating a worthy follow up to one of the best PC franchises of all time.

 

[MasterLobar]

Hadn't they believed those liars at OS, Starbreeze wouldn't have gone bankrupt last December. The $7 million they wasted on SS3 killed them and cost the Starbreeze CEO who made the deal with OS his job.

 

[Infinitron]

Starbreeze had bigger problems than just System Shock 3. That was just one symptom of their batshit management. See our thread here: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/the-fall-of-starbreeze.125905/

 

[Katana1000S]

Starbreeze had bigger problems than just System Shock 3. That was just one symptom of their batshit management. See our thread here: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/the-fall-of-starbreeze.125905/

The plot thickens, my god, what a bunch of rank amateurs

What grovelling have you got now now Efe/Razorfist <------- Must be related if not same person?

 

[Efe]

isnt it normal for a CEO to lose his job after a big bad decision?

 

[Grauken]

isnt it normal for a CEO to lose his job after a big bad decision?

Usually with a nice payout to make sure they don't starve

 

[Katana1000S]

isnt it normal for a CEO to lose his job after a big bad decision?

Usually with a nice payout to make sure they don't starve

And probably the reason why this whole debacle exists, CEO hits and runs, takes a big fat pay off, rinse and repeat ... when will some people see the light?

 

[hexer]

isnt it normal for a CEO to lose his job after a big bad decision?

Spoiler

Still running Interplay after ruining Fallout and Black Isle Studios​

 

[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.