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

[Feyd Rautha]

Why do the IPs I like always end up in limbo?

I wish Fallout had ended up in limbo instead of going to Bethesda.

 

[LESS T_T]

I'd bet Tencent would try to make at least a game out of this, not F2P or mulitplayer, but a singleplayer game that they think would cater western PC/console audience.

Recently Chinese and Korean game publishers are trying to diversify their portfolio amidst of the Chinese government's gaming crackdown. You may have noticed recent attempts either by themselves (Lies of P, Where Winds Meet, ...) or by hiring devs experienced in those games (Calisto Protocol, snatching Yakuza creator from SEGA, ...).

I'm pretty sure one of Tencent's western studios will make System Shock 3. Probably a AAA game modeled after Calisto Protocol and Dead Space remake.

(And it would be funny if they entrust System Shock 3 to Calisto Protocol devs, considering how Dead Space was almost System Shock 3. Yeah Calisto Protocol devs are not part of Tencent, but it has some stakes in the parent company.)

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Nobody has stopped an enterprising new band of designers from making a game about a bigass space station taken over by a murderous AI. It is the most bland, most generic sort of idea out there. The one missing thing would be the brand. And having the brand, or even generous dev money, could never replace talent and drive.

You mean like "Prey"?

GG Bethesda marketing for labeling that game with their shame of Human Head. Imagine how well it could have done if not for the recoil over the cancellation of HH's Prey 2.

[Pete Hines screwing over Tommy].gif

Prey (2017) also felt more like a LGS game than the pure fuck you and shit in your mailbox of Underworld Ascendant's production. (Okay, the QA who spent 1500+ hours and the CM were trying, and Tim Stellmach, but not sure what the first producer was doing besides give bad excuses at launch.) Who the fuck forgets a save system after being reminded about it for three years? Somewhere in the time between the names were actually making games and delivering that hot mess, OSE's management decided that they really hated their fans. Even afterwards the spite was shown in DVD jewel cases LARPing as Big Boxes and spam posts for Crowfall. But System Shock 3 was probably another hot mess, especially with the design of PHAUXDAN - which is surprising for how much they were showing off the graphics on a couple of other set pieces to bait publishers.

Expecting a System Shock from Warren Spector without a Doug Church is like Ultima from Richard Garriott without everyone else - we're unfortunately in the worst timeline with those two full of auteur.

Edit: Not butthurt, just marveling at the tendency for all of the folks who once talked shit about EA do worse to customers all on their own and create the worst timeline. Peter Molyneux, Richard Garriott, Chris Roberts, Paul Neurath, and Warren Spactor. There are a bunch I've left out but those are the ones who have dipped into crowdfunding. I'm not mourning their careers as most of them have been irrelevant for a decade or more to the genres they come crawling back to with seemingly no clue what they said they were going to make - I'm mourning the legacy of titles the communities for each showed more care over the years than those who supposedly were the brain trust behind the franchise and the entire reason why anyone threw any money in their directions.

End of day, Tencent SS3.

What about OSE SS3, you ask? RIP and burn. Those voice lines for OSE's SS3 were laughable. "I can see you wherever you are!" IIRC. Well, uh, no shit. Compared to her classic lines that teaser was just bad. I guess OSE were trying for the "running on a potato" thing, too?

It would have been better if SS just stayed in Night Dive's hands as part of the cast of Blood and their other FPS re-fakes for ultra-casuals.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Oh, it looks like they were either bitchslapped out of their own trademarks or acquired, the latter is more likely from how the Argos registration has Otherside Entertainment on it.

And don't forget what's now most important to actual development of video games:

Conclusion: Paul Neurath and Warren Spector are now selling employees as NFTs.

 

[Nano]

Totally forgot about getting this email years and years ago. Lol, what a liar.

 

[kangaxx]

I might disable the alerts from this thread to save myself the disappointment.

 

[Child of Malkav]

It's so over.

 

[cvv]

It's so over.

It was never under.

 

[Sacibengala]

If this ever happens it will be nothing like the originals.

 

[kangaxx]

Just rate every post on this thread Despair and close the fucking thing.

 

[Gargaune]

Nano, do you think there might be something to read into the writer of DX ending his reassurances with an ellipsis?

 

[Morgoth]

Nightdive offers hopeful update on System Shock 3’s future​

The much-anticipated sequel disappeared from the public domain in 2020

Nightdive Studios has said it could soon clarify the future of System Shock 3, the immersive sim sequel that disappeared from the public domain in 2020.

System Shock 3 spent several years in development at Austin, Texas-based Otherside Entertainment – the studio helmed by original developers Paul Neurath and Warren Spector – before disappearing in 2020.

Eventually, a statement was published on Otherside’s website claiming that Tencent would be “taking the System Shock franchise forward”, but nothing has been heard of it since. Otherside has now moved onto another game, immersive sim Thick as Thieves.

Remaster specialist Nightdive holds the rights to the first two System Shock games, and has released a System Shock remake, with a SS2 remaster planned for June.

However, it clarified to VGC in 2022, the rights it licensed to Otherside for System Shock 3 had been sold on to Tencent, meaning it was now up to the Chinese conglomerate if the third game gets made.

Asked for an update on the situation at GDC this month, Nightdive’s director of business development Larry Kuperman admitted that System Shock 3 remains in a “very complicated” situation, but indicated that fans could receive clarification on its future “potentially within a year”.

“The situation around System Shock 3 is very complicated,” he said, adding that Nightdive did not yet have a concrete update for fans.

“Not as yet, not as yet. I don’t know when it’s going to clarify, but it could potentially be within a year. It could be, or it could take longer. That said, what I can say is that we have visions of what we can do within what we control.

“You’re going to see a remaster of System Shock 2. I’ve been asked twice earlier today why we didn’t do a remake, and I said, ‘are you somehow under the impression that because we do a remaster that we won’t be able to do a remake in the future?’ That might be something that I can either confirm or deny. But there’s going to be content coming out.”

Asked about the future of System Shock beyond the System Shock 2 remaster, Kuperman said: “We’ll see what happens. I mean, there’s stuff that we can do within the first and the second.”

Nightdive previously indicated that Tencent could also make additional System Shock sequels in the future, if it were to develop the third game and decide to continue. However, Nightdive could pursue cross-media projects, such as a previously announced live-action series from streaming platform Binge.

I don't really care much for Chyna Shock 3.

But Nightdive has free reign with Shock 1&2. They should make an expansion to Shock 2 a'la Thief: Black Parade.

 

[kangaxx]

I'd be interested to see what they can do, albeit with low expectations. The first two are right up there in my favourite games of all time.

 

[Spukrian]

Presumably Nightdive wants to buy the rights back but can't afford Tencent's price at the moment. Or Tencent doesn't want to sell.

I really don't believe Tencent is developing System Shock 3.

 

[Taxnomore]

Maybe they can do the Underworlds game ?

 

[Ash]

Totally forgot about getting this email years and years ago. Lol, what a liar.

Where is the lie? All that means is Pacotti has faith in Chip's design ability.

Average internet peoples...sigh.

 

[Nano]

Totally forgot about getting this email years and years ago. Lol, what a liar.

Where is the lie? All that means is Pacotti has faith in Chip's design ability.

Average internet peoples...sigh.

I was speaking in jest. Stop looking for things to be outraged about online for a few minutes.

 

[ciox]

Hey guys I got the rights to make System Shock sequels!!! Aaaaaand they're gone..

 

[Wesp5]

System Shock 3 has already been made, but they called it "Prey" and it flopped probably because of that . And in my opinion System Shock 2 was an endless backtracking and respawning gameplay nightmare and didn't deserve the hype it got!

 

[Yosharian]

System Shock 3 has already been made, but they called it "Prey" and it flopped probably because of that . And in my opinion System Shock 2 was an endless backtracking and respawning gameplay nightmare and didn't deserve the hype it got!

Prey flopped because it got shit reviews and people didn't understand it

There's also the fact that gamers have become so used to being spoonfed by popamole slop that a game that actually requires you to manage ammo, hp etc is just incomprehensible to them

This is a real review

Started off really good but game got frustrating towards the second half of the game. Developers just decided to spam so many enemies throughout the maps while having a resource system that makes it impossible to have enough ammo or consumables to deal with it. It’s unfortunate and got too frustrating for me to finish it.

Yes it's 'Impossible' to deal with enemies while managing your resources

 

[Sodafish]

Prey was one of the better games released in the last 10 years. Most people are idiots.

 

[anvi]

Prey started good but dragged on. Could use more interesting combat too. SS3 will never live up to the original.

 

[Nikanuur]

Prey was one of the better games released in the last 10 years. Most people are idiots.

The majority of the criticism of Prey I saw was mostly "I have almost no taste left because life's taught me that everything is bitter, and nothing short of utter pinnacle would stir me. As such, I trash-talk nearly everything because it makes me feel at least something." kind of nonsense, and not anything objective. I have found all the necessary elements in it—exploration that matters, the atmosphere, passable story, various approaches to combat, and progressing builds.

Prey started good but dragged on. Could use more interesting combat too. SS3 will never live up to the original.

Even though I have a different opinion, I am okay with your statement, btw. You have your own feelings about the matter, and that's cool. Moreover, you don't seem to be confusing feelings with objectivity, nor falling into the trap of the other extreme—promoting objectivity for the sake of it. I can respect that.

 

[flyingjohn]

The majority of the criticism

The three major ones are difficulty, boring/underutilized enemies. and crafting feeling like dumpster diving aaa shit.
Difficulty one can be applied to deus ex and the entire shock franchise, so business as usual for immersive sims.
Enemies on the other hand is a valid point.They lack uniqueness compared to any shock game and are boring to fight. Mimics are just gimmicky and underutilized.This coupled with nonexistent difficulty means it becomes a boring game very quickly.
The crafting just feels unneeded. Dumpster diving could work if the game was actually difficult and you needed to scavenge every single resource to succeeded.
Looking back, it is a typical post Arx Arkane game.Which means, it is a game where the easy difficulty creates a chain reaction with other elements to ruin the entire game. Modding the difficulty still leaves you with a boring enemy cast, and for a so called "shock" spiritual successor, that si a big problem.

 

[Yosharian]

The majority of the criticism

The three major ones are difficulty, boring/underutilized enemies. and crafting feeling like dumpster diving aaa shit.
Difficulty one can be applied to deus ex and the entire shock franchise, so business as usual for immersive sims.
Enemies on the other hand is a valid point.They lack uniqueness compared to any shock game and are boring to fight. Mimics are just gimmicky and underutilized.This coupled with nonexistent difficulty means it becomes a boring game very quickly.
The crafting just feels unneeded. Dumpster diving could work if the game was actually difficult and you needed to scavenge every single resource to succeeded.
Looking back, it is a typical post Arx Arkane game.Which means, it is a game where the easy difficulty creates a chain reaction with other elements to ruin the entire game. Modding the difficulty still leaves you with a boring enemy cast, and for a so called "shock" spiritual successor, that si a big problem.

Disagree with everything you said tbh