System Shock 3 is coming, but it’s not coming from Warren Spector or his team.
Updates on System Shock 3 have been trickled out over time since its announcement in 2015. The news that followed this announcement saw the game getting a publisher and a $16 million investment from Starbreeze in 2016, a teaser trailer in 2019, and then the announcement of development of the game being ‘supported’ by Tencent in 2020.
After System Shock 3 was initially announced, it was later confirmed that the development team would consist of Warren Spector and his team of merry men at Otherside Entertainment. This was considered by many as a step in the right direction, as Spector had worked on Deus Ex and Thief in the past. However, according to a recent interview with Spector, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, and hasn’t been for a while.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Spector confirmed that him and his team at Otherside Entertainment are definitely no longer working on System Shock 3 and hadn’t touched it in years. After mentioning that Tencent is “taking the franchise forward”, he clarified that him and Otherside Entertainment had only worked on the game for two years, in 2018 and 2019.
Spector didn’t give much clarification after that. He mentions that the recovery period post-System Shock 3 was difficult, which makes sense considering reports of senior staff being laid off from Otherside Entertainment in 2020. On the bright side, Spector mentions that he and his team are working on a completely separate game for the time being.
For now, all we know about the development of System Shock 3 is that it’s in Tencent’s hands. There’s been no news as to which developer from Tencent’s collection is working on the title. In the meantime, the Nightdive Studios team still has plans to release their remake of the original System Shock this year, so at least we have that to look forward to.
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