Developer Nightdive Studios has given its remake of the cult classic System Shock a release date… again. However, the Washington-based retro experts might be serious this time.
Now it’s probably final: Originally, Kickstarter backers were supposed to get their hands on the System Shock remake in December 2017. But then developer Nightdive Studios apparently reached for the stars, maneuvering itself into a deep crisis. The release of the remade cult RPG shooter was to be postponed a few more times, but now this long odyssey could come to an end, at least on the PC.
After a vague March announcement, Nightdive has announced a fixed release date for the PC version of System Shock via Twitter. The reinterpretation is supposed to be released on May 30th, 2023, and this time we don’t want to doubt the words of the brave fighters around Stephen and Alix Kick. Because if Nightdive has learned one thing from its misery, it’s that you should only make big announcements with a finished product behind you.
The Odyssey of The System Shock Remake
Originally, more than 20,000 backers had invested over 1.3 million US dollars in the return of “killer AI” Shodan on Kickstarter. The immersive simulation from Looking Glass Studios was released back in 1994 and was produced by none other than Warren Spector (Deus Ex).
Whatever devil was riding the team of Nightdive Studios at the time, he made them produce a heavily modernized reboot first. The backers, however, were promised a faithful remake, which led to some indignation among the backers, and rightly so. The developers nevertheless only came to their senses after a publishing deal for System Shock seemed impossible, and the budget was completely used up.
At this point in the development history, the remake was in danger of being cancelled; also because the developers of the original Unity demo had left before. However, that demo represented exactly the game that backers had paid so much for. After all, CEO Kick actually managed to convince the original team to return, ending System Shock’s odyssey.
Why not just do that, one may ask. But maybe the final product will be so good that we won’t even want to ask ourselves that question any more.
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