Kickstarter has proven to be an up and down venture. For every success, such as Night in the Woods or Hyper Light Drifter, there are 50 games that fail, such as Mighty No. 9. Then there are the games that fall into the murky waters of the middle ground, to challenges that threaten their development. Such is the case with the System Shock remaster.
Originally expected to release in 2018, this story has now twisted as developer Nightdive Studios and its CEO, Stephen Kick, have revealed that all the work on the System Shock remake has been put on an indefinite hiatus. On its Kickstarter page, Nightdive posted an update on the project titled “Sometimes You Need To Take a Step Back In Order To Take Two Steps Forward,” stating that the project was growing beyond the original campaigns’ goals and ambitions. Addressing a concern that the project was moving from what backers and fans were promised, Kick shared that the team’s efforts have been put on hold in order to re-assess the vision of System Shock‘s development.
As you might expect, this could put the game’s expected release window in jeopardy as the game is on hiatus with no predicted end. Larry Kuperman, director of business development at Nightdive, estimated that the game is 18 to 24 months away from an actual release.
Early prototype footage for the game looked promising, and the game made a move from Unity to the Unreal Engine in March 2017, which looked great. Fans were excited for the glorious return of this iconic game. This does further highlight the gamble you take with Kickstarter, but hopefully the developers can pull together and provide the System Shock experience that fans are anticipating. Perhaps this hiatus will be the thing that makes the remastered version of System Shock into a success, as opposed to a frowned-upon failure.
