System Shock 3 Gets a Publisher

System Shock 3 was announced in December of 2015, and if you forgot that little nugget, don’t worry: most people did. While getting a follow-up to the cult classic System Shock 2 (and the lesser-known System Shock) was certainly exciting at the time, the absolute silence that followed from developer Otherside Entertainment. While we know Warren Spector heads the project, and several old developers from Looking Glass Studios are involved… that’s pretty much it. Even the official website is pretty bare…

But, the other day, we finally learned something new… not exciting, per se, but new. This week, we learned that Starbreeze Studios, the folks behind the new-and-improved Payday 2, are coming on board as publishers of the new game, and will be investing 12 million dollars into the game’s development and release on “PC and other platforms”. In return, they’ll get 120% of their investment back, and then 50% of all profits that are raised by the game afterward.

"System Shock is one of those iconic franchises in the history of games that still gets my blood going and Mr. Spector is one of the founding fathers of the modern action RPG. We're greatly looking forward to bringing System Shock 3 to players world wide in our collaboration with Otherside Entertainment and Warren Spector's team. I'll be first in line to play"

Interesting to note is the “PC and other platforms” bit, which would imply (if not outright state) that the game will be coming to consoles as well as personal computers, which would certainly be a departure from the cyberpunk FPS’s roots. That said, it still could technically mean something else (maybe we’ll finally get that console mover for the Ouya? Or a mobile port?) so we’ll have to wait and see.

There’s no official release date as of yet, but I’m sure we’ll keep posted as things develop.