System Shock 3 Future Uncertain As Multiple Senior Leads Exit

Multiple exits from the original development team and new rumors suggest the future of OtherSide Entertainment’s System Shock 3 may be in jeopardy.

New rumors seem to suggest the future of System Shock 3 may be uncertain, as almost (if not all) of the project’s original developers have reportedly left OtherSide Entertainment. A large number of players have been looking forward to the upcoming sequel to System Shock 2 for a long time now, and a trailer for System Shock 3 shown at the 2019 Game Developer’s Conference seemed to indicate things were finally on track. Unfortunately, fans now know that may not be the case.

OtherSide Entertainment acquired the rights to the System Shock franchise in 2015, and one year later they announced development on a long-awaited third entry had finally begun. Many of the designers who joined OtherSide’s project were members on the original System Shock development team, and fan excitement was high. However, a lack of substantial updates over the years have led some to begin worrying about the eventual fate of System Shock 3, and new reports indicate the game may be in more trouble than previously thought.

According to a new report by VGC, one anonymous developer said the entire original System Shock team was “no longer employed” by OtherSide Entertainment. The past five months have seen the departure of numerous studio leads from OtherSide, including the game’s writer and director, quality assurance lead, lead programmer, and its design director, among many others totaling “at least a dozen senior System Shock 3 developers.”

As shown in the pre-alpha gameplay footage above, OtherSide Entertainment has clearly been putting a lot of work into System Shock 3, but the game reportedly still has not found a new publisher since Starbreeze sold the rights back to OtherSide last year in an effort to solve their own financial problems. Last year, the studio’s former community manager Sam Luangkhot said she was aware people were concerned about the current state of the studio, and added “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried as well… It hurts to see many of these developers out of a job on a project they worked so hard on.”

A sequel to the much-loved System Shock 2 is definitely something both fans of the series and the game’s own developers have been wanting to see brought to life for some time now, and it’s disappointing to think that dream may falter when everyone was so close to seeing it become reality. While there have been no official announcements yet in regards to the future of System Shock 3, hopefully OtherSide Entertainment will find a way to deliver on what fans have been looking forward to since a time before Bioshock existed.