What did you expect from a bunch of filthy bags of meat?
System Shock 3 was announced back in 2015 as being in early development with OtherSide Entertainment, a studio full of System Shock alumni, and the insects rejoiced. Then, in 2017, it was announced that OtherSide was partnering with Swedish publisher Starbreeze Studios and it started looking like System Shock 3 had a chance. Then, Starbreeze sold all its publishing rights back to OtherSide, in 2019, to avoid some pesky bankruptcy issues, and OtherSide started looking for another publisher, vowing to self-publish if they couldn’t find one.
Well, they couldn’t find one and, now, much of the System Shock 3 team has apparently dispersed, having either left or been laid off, including the game’s writer, director, senior designer, lead programmer, QA lead, and senior environment artist. In January this year, a former developer on the project (posting as Kin Corn Karn) responded to System Shock 3 questions on an RPG Codex forum, suggesting that the game was “critically behind” in content development and probably wouldn’t have met expectations, anyway.
If Starbreeze hadn’t gone into crisis I think we would’ve delivered something interesting with some fresh and innovative gameplay, but a much smaller game than what people were expecting and inevitably disappointing for a sequel to such a beloved franchise.
So, it doesn’t look like we’re getting System Shock 3.
Via PC Gamer.