Video game development is an arduous, and time consuming process. While development tended to be a lot more secretive in the past, the internet and social media have granted gamers a unique window that was previously unavailable. The latest example regards System Shock 3, a title that may or may not have just lost its entire development team! The rumor comes from a supposed first-person account posting on RPGCodex. The poster detailed issues facing the game's development, and how the small developer OtherSide has apparently struggled to deliver an experience that lives up to the expectations of System Shock fans.

According to the poster, the problems began when the rights to System Shock were sold by Starbreeze to the game's developer, OtherSide. Starbreeze was facing financial issues, and selling the publishing rights to OtherSide helped them in the short term. Unfortunately, it also seems to have resulted in less funding for the game, as the smaller developer was forced to try being more experimental to make up for their inability to craft a AAA experience.

"If Starbreeze hadn't gone into crisis I think we would've delivered something interesting with some fresh and innovative gameplay, but a much smaller game than what people were expecting and inevitably disappointing for a sequel to such a beloved franchise.

Those high expectations drove a lot of expensive experimentation. We were a small team and knew we couldn't compete with current immersive sims in production quality and breadth, so we had to be creative and clever and weird. And we were on our way to make something unique and possibly fun, but probably not what the audience was hungry for."

As of this writing, it's hard to say for certain how reliable the poster is, but a number of people working on the game have left the project, according to their LinkedIn profiles. There has been no official cancellation for System Shock 3, but the game doesn't seem to be in a very good place, at the moment.

"I don't actually know what's going on, but the team is no longer employed there."

As games become bigger and more immersive, development costs continue to rise. Despite this, the MSRP of video games has remained mostly the same over the last 20 years or so, and increased competition from indie games has made it difficult for many developers and publishers to keep the lights on. As a result, studios are expecting more from their employees, and problems with crunch remain prevalent. There are no easy answers, but lay-offs such as these are becoming all too common, as a result.



Posted: Feb 11, 2020 8:36 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2020/02/09/system-shock-3-development-trouble/