System Shock reboot development halts for rethink

by Mark Tyson on 19 February 2018, 12:35

Tags: Kickstarter

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Back in November 2015 HEXUS wrote about an impending full remake of the 1994 vintage System Shock, the inspiration for the acclaimed BioShock trilogy. Nightdive Studios would be behind the upcoming remake / reboot and they had experience on the franchise already - on System Shock: Enhanced Edition, and lots of experienced managers / developers in-house. During summer 2016 a Kickstarter project was begun, and it successfully raised $1,350,700 with 21,625 backers by close on 28th July. The game was scheduled for release to backers in December 2017.

Hiatus

The planned launch date has come and gone, but Nightdive has kept backers updated via the official Kickstarter channel. Just ahead of the weekend the latest update informed those interested that the development team have been told to take a rest "while we reassess our path so that we can return to our vision". Importantly, we are assured that "we are taking a break, but NOT ending the project". So what has happened?

The vision began to change

Explaining what has happened with the game development over recent months isn't easy for Nightdive. Casting around for explanations, the company CEO, Stephen Kick, wrote "Maybe we were too successful. Maybe we lost our focus. The vision began to change." At least some of the time has been taken up with the change in development engine from Unity to Unreal. Then, as things started to get underway perhaps the team were too ambitious and widened the scope of the development beyond what was initially promised. Kick admits that the project got out of control, resulting in the team taking "the wrong path".

The latest update ends with the statement that "System Shock will be completed with all Kickstarter promises fulfilled". If I was a project backer I would be feeling pretty unsatisfied right now and would want at least a new date upon which to pin my hopes / expectations. Polygon got a quote about the remaining time likely to be required to complete development as being 18 to 24 months. Interestingly, some creators of the original remake demo are likely to return to the project to see it through.



HEXUS Forums :: 13 Comments

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They screwed up and lost their way, but better to be honest about it and not do a ZX Spectrum Vega+ PR disaster by Retro Computers Ltd
If I paid a contractor/builder in advance I would never see him again, nor my money…the same goes with game developers. Even more so when nostalgia is the main ingredient. But people will never learn.
Moonister
If I paid a contractor/builder in advance I would never see him again, nor my money…the same goes with game developers. Even more so when nostalgia is the main ingredient. But people will never learn.


Except…you're wrong…look at Battalion 1944 as an example, is a game that was Kick Started and its now in Early Access and for an Early Access game is damn good too.

You can't and shouldn't judge all game devs that use kick starter, based on the unscrupulous actions of a few.
That was one game which I was looking forward to off my list. Also,after experiencing how long ARK took to actually get finished to a reasonably degree,I won't be investing anything more than a few quid in any Early Access/Kickstarter game. I think literally all of the ones I have bought never shipped within the time they said they would let alone even get completed.
Disturbedguy
Except…you're wrong…look at Battalion 1944 as an example, is a game that was Kick Started and its now in Early Access and for an Early Access game is damn good too.

You can't and shouldn't judge all game devs that use kick starter, based on the unscrupulous actions of a few.

Yeah I backed it, only thing I ever used kickstarter for. Havent had much time to play it recently though :(