Nightdive Studios CEO Stephen Kick said at this year’s Gamescom that it has officially sold the rights to System Shock to Tencent. There have been two System projects in the works, a third installment and a remake of the original, so up until now it was not exactly known what had become of either.
“So Tencent currently has the rights to the third game, and we have the rights to do the remake of the first game and potentially a remake of the second game. That’s pretty much where it stands right now.”
Otherside Entertainment had previously been working on System Shock 3 but said in May 2020 that Tencent would be taking over. This news came after a former employee said they were laid off and the game had been canceled.
1/2 We are happy to announce that Tencent will be taking the #SystemShock franchise forward.
— OtherSide Entertainment (@OtherSide_Games) May 20, 2020
At this point, it’s entirely up to Tencent if it continues with the third installment as is or scraps it and starts over. Kick added “I think they technically could do 4 and 5 as well, but they’d have to do 3 first. So, we’ll see.”
Nightdive Studios has previously said it planned to release the remake sometime in 2022 and even posted screenshots for it. A playable version of the game was seen at Gamescom. With any luck, fans of the classic game may yet get to play it before the year is out. Kick also confirmed that Nightdive does have more plans for the franchise which could be “a remake of the second game or some cross-media stuff”. The cross-media reference is likely the January 2022 live-action series announcement.
Source: VGC