There's nothing but bad news about the stalled development of System Shock 3. A recently published report claims that not only is System Shock 3 shelved, but the entire development team is no longer employed by developer OtherSide Entertainment.
System Shock 3 was formally announced in late 2015. The team was said to be made up of ex-Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios developers, headed by Deus Ex Director Warren Spector. Spector is also the director of the original System Shock, making System Shock 3 a highly anticipated release, yet System Shock 3 never grew into anything substantial and was always considered something of a mystery.
The mystery now resolves itself, with the confirmation that the development team is being dissolved. According to VideoGameChronicle, System Shock 3's director, lead programmer, QA lead, senior designer, and senior environmental artist have all updated their LinkedIn profiles to note their departure from OtherSide. An anonymous source reportedly says that's just the start of it and that the entire System Shock 3 team is "no longer employed."
Issues at OtherSide have been publicly disclosed for some time now. In late 2018 System Shock 3's publisher, Starbreeze, went bankrupt and eventually sold the game's license back to OtherSide. In May 2019, Spector spoke publically about the search for a new publisher for System Shock 3. As the year went on and no new publisher was announced, worries grew. Layoffs at the studio were confirmed in December 2019, showing how the situation was becoming desperate. Today's news, unfortunately, comes across like a natural conclusion.
The frustrating thing is that at one point, Warren Spector said that OtherSide didn't even necessarily need a publisher. "Luckily, OtherSide is flush enough that we're funding ourselves and can continue to do that for quite a while," is how Spector characterized the development of System Shock 3 in mid-2019. It's unclear of Spector was exaggerating for the sake of trying to find a publisher or if something else went wrong in the time since.
Why System Shock 3 wasn't picked up by another publisher will likely remain an unsolved mystery. At one point, OtherSide community manager Sam Luangkhot said that System Shock 3 wasn't the kind of game many would expect. Without a big development team, OtherSide focused on experimental and "possibly fun" gameplay. Perhaps publishers were put off by System Shock 3's uniqueness, or perhaps the game just never came together like planned. It's disappointing news for all parties involved, but the developers from OtherSide especially.
System Shock 3 is now unlikely to be released, short of a project reboot.
Source: VideoGameChronicle