System Shock remake still set to scare, but not until 2020

Horror title sees two-year delay after direction concerns

Speaking at this week’s GDC in San Francisco, studio Nightdive have stated that their crowdfunded remake of 1994’s creepy techno-adventure, System Shock, which went on hiatus earlier this year, has been pushed back to a tentative 2020 release window.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick and Business Director Larry Kuperman candidly revealed that they felt the game was getting away from them, with the project growing out of control in terms of scope and ideas.

“We began to run into feature creep,” admits Kuperman. “All of those things like ‘you know what would really be cool, how we might reinterpret this.’ Various people wanted to put their imprint on it. As this process evolved over a period of time, it grew in complexity, and it veered away from this original representation.”

The decision was made to halt production due to backer feedback, with worries that the game wasn’t being steered in the direction that fans were hoping for. As such, Nightdive are stripping down the project thus far, and are hoping to deliver an experience worthy of both the classic PC title and the expectations of the people.

“Our intention is to ship exactly the game that was promised,” continues Kupperman, “with as much of the features that were promised as we can, in a timeframe that will get it out as fast as we can.”

Crowdfunding is an stressful temptress. You get the moolah needed to realise your game at all, but you also have the hopes and visions of said backers adding extra weight to what is already an extremely high-pressure development process. I can only imagine the amount of second-guessing and self-doubt that creeps in for studios. It’s an unenviable position.

System Shock is currently in development for release in Q1 of 2020.

System Shock Remake still happening [Eurogamer]