Question System Shock Remake?

[mainer]

Does anyone on the PCG staff, or anyone else, have any current information on the state of the System Shock Remake (or Reboot as I see it sometimes referred to)? Nightdive studios seems to have gone into "radio silence" since early July of this year. They don't respond to anyone in the Steam Discussions, or their quick starter backers, and I've failed to find any current news by Googling. The Steam page had it listed as being released in "Summer 2021", but has recently changed to "Coming Soon".

System Shock on Steam

A first-person fight to the death in the depths of space!

store.steampowered.com

The gameplay videos looked good, as did the brief demo they released, but the lack of communication is a bit disconcerting. If it's delayed, that's fine, as we all know what happens when a game is released before it's ready. But an update from Nightdive would go a long way to easing gamers minds (at least those looking forward to it). PCG did a nice article on the game back in July:
Here's 7 minutes of System Shock remake gameplay | PC Gamer

And I know it's considered genre is "immersive sim" as apposed to RPG, but those genres are pretty much interchangeable for me.

 

[Zloth]

View: https://youtu.be/xWGHSDz0SzM?t=1566

 

[mainer]

@Zloth - Hey, thank-you! I hadn't seen that anywhere, and it's very encouraging to hear that they're still working on System Shock and value their personal lives enough that they don't enforce crunch time just to get a game out the door. It gives me even more respect for them by upholding their own personal values. I love small companies like this, especially when they bring back the old classics. I feel much relieved.

 

[Zloth]

That is a good thing - though it would be nice if they would say something through better channels. A quick heads-up to PC Gamer and an announcement on Steam would be a good thing.

 

[mainer]

Yes, that's right, I'm resurrecting this old thread from over a year ago (it is almost Halloween) rather than make a new one, just because the release date on Steam has changed from "coming soon" to "March 2023". I had really hoped that it would be out before the end of the year (especially since the original release date was for 2017-2018). I'm still looking forward to this game, with some reservations because there must be some unresolved issues.

Maybe PCG could do an investigative, behind the scenes article on the state of the game and the reasons for the delay?

 

[mainer]

Well, almost six months later and I'm re-resurrecting this thread again, because the System Shock Remake has been delayed again, from March 2023 until May 30, 2023. I understand the need to delay a game's release to give developers more time to fine tune a game so that it's a good experience, and many things can influence that, like the Covoid years, which disrupted all our lives.

But Nightdive Studios, after a successful Kickstarter campaign, has delayed this game multiple times from, I believe, an original projected release in 2017 or 2018. I know they scrapped the original design and completely started over, but through the years they kept issuing specific release dates which were never realized.

I really think that Nightdive, as well as other studios, should just stop issuing specific release dates and just stick to a "when it's done" policy, not yielding to online pressure for a release time frame.
System Shock has had a last-minute delay until May: 'We are after all merely human' | PC Gamer

 

[Brian Boru]

original projected release in 2017 or 2018

I'm probably missing sth from earlier, but looks to have been announced in August 2019.
"when exactly it will arrive is anyone's guess"

Anyroad… this is all just a cunning ploy to force you to re-re-re-re-surrect this thread again-again-ag…

 

[Zloth]

Say there's a line a mile away from me. I walk toward that line and, just before I get to it, the finish line moves a half mile further away. I keep walking and, just before getting to the line, it moves a quarter mile further away. This keeps happening. Will I ever reach that line?

 

[mainer]

Atari is buying System Shock remake studio Nightdive for $10M | PC Gamer

I'm not sure how I feel about this, though instinctively I rebel at the thought of any independent game studio being consumed by a larger corporation. I respect Nightdive for resurrecting and creating remasters/remakes of older games, but they do seem to be a bit mismanaged or erratic in the games they produce.

I'm sure they were a bit strapped for funds with the prolonged development of the System Shock Remake, so I think that may have been at least partially the reason for the sale. I just hope it doesn't inhibit their focus on remasters/remakes of older games being owned by Atari.

 

[Zloth]

I don't even know what "Atari" means now. The name itself has been bought and sold, so I don't know what company it's attached to. By the looks of that article, I get the feeling Atari doesn't really know, either.

 

[Brian Boru]

I get the feeling Atari doesn't really know, either.

I tried to unpick Atari ~a year ago, gave up when migraine threatened—it's a real mare's nest, I wouldn't trust it to see anything longish-term thru.