While the System Shock remake is on track for a 2022 release, the game’s long-troubled threequel System Shock 3 remains in limbo.
Speaking at Gamescom 2022, Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick confirmed they own the rights to remake the first and possibly the second game, the third game’s rights are now owned by Tencent.
“When we originally acquired the rights to the franchise, we licensed the rights for the third game to Warren and Paul [Neurath] at Otherside,” Kick said to VGC. “They then subsequently sold their rights to Tencent.”
He added, “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.”
Series creator and System Shock 3 creative adviser Warren Spector said similar things prior, saying “there’s not much more to say at this point” on the sequel. He noted it’s up to Tecent to “say what they want to say” on the game.
System Shock 3 was originally announced way back in 2015, and it changed hands between former publisher Starbreeze Entertainment – who ran into financial problems – and then got bought up Chinese media giant Tencent. Spector’s team hasn’t worked on the game since 2019, but Otherside did previously say Tencent “will be taking the System Shock franchise forward.”
That’s essentially all we know for now – and while Tencent is throwing around money as usual, it remains to be seen if they want to invest in the System Shock franchise.