If you're a fan of the System Shock series, you're probably wondering about what the future holds for the third game in the series, System Shock 3.
Well, we now have an update, courtesy of the publication VGC, which spoke to Nightdive’s director of business development Larry Kuperman at this month's GDC. Kuperman told VGC that the situation is still "very complicated" but has said there might be an update on the project "potentially within a year".
Originally announced way back in December 2015, the System Shock sequel was previously in development at the Austin, Texas-based Otherside Entertainment, which was home to former Looking Glass Studios employees, including legendary developers Paul Neurath and Warren Spector, and was initially meant to be published by the Swedish publisher Starbreeze.
However, due to Starbreeze's well-documented financial issues and restructuring, Otherside ended up buying back the publishing rights from the company and announced it had begun looking for an alternative publisher in February 2019.
Flash forward one year and reports then began to surface that the System Shock 3 team was 'no longer employed' at the studio, with the project effectively being shelved after struggling to find a replacement.
It was then announced that Otherside had sold the publishing rights to Tencent in May 2020, with the Austin studio stating that the Chinese publisher would be the ones to take "the System Shock franchise forward". Since then, very little news has surfaced about the status of a sequel, with Nightdive — the current owners of the franchise and property — stating in the past it was up to Tencent what happened next.
Speaking to VGC about the status of the remake, Kuperman told VGC that "The situation around System Shock 3 is very complicated", before speculating that 2025 may be the year we finally get some positive news:
“Not as yet, not as yet. I don’t know when it’s going to clarify, but it could potentially be within a year. It could be, or it could take longer. That said, what I can say is that we have visions of what we can do within what we control."
In other System Shock-related news, Nightdive recently released a new trailer for its 25th anniversary remaster of System Shock 2, which is expected to arrive on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on June 26th, 2025.
This game is set to feature enhanced graphics and performance, as well as widescreen support, cross-play co-op multiplayer, and improved mod support, among several quality-of-life improvements. You can view the trailer for that game below: