System Shock Remake Was Almost Cancelled After a Year of Development

After a lengthy and problematic development that lasted more than seven years, the System Shock remake has finally been released. In the interview with Edge magazine, Stephen Kick, the CEO of Nightdive Studios, revealed all the difficulties his company encountered. He shared that the funding from the initial Kickstarter campaigns ran out after the first year, and the project was almost cancelled to avoid going bankrupt.

In June 2016, the team launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to raise money to create a remake. A little over a month later, they successfully managed to get $1.35 million instead of the planned $900,000. After achieving this goal, a group of "experienced developers with a solid portfolio" began to work on the game. 

However, according to Stephen Kick, the artists and developers could only make some concept art and very early versions of the levels, which consisted of gray blocks. 

After making the decision to move the development in-house, Nightdive Studios had to hunt for a publisher as they were out of money. Stephen Kick met twelve publishers, but he only received rejections. Anyway, the numerous remastering titles that Nightdive Studios released over the years helped to finance the development of the System Shock remake. 

Looking back, Stephen Kick confessed that this challenging period caused many sleepless nights as he had to think of a way to carry the project forward. Another problem that the company faced was a backlash from fans who cancelled their pre-orders for the System Shock remake after the game's publisher Prime Matter tweeted an image of SHODAN created using Midjourney. 

Despite all the troubles, the release of the game on PC still took place on May 30, 2023. Currently, Nightdive Studios is involved in developing console versions as well as an updated sequel.

You can read the interview in the 386 issue of Edge magazine. Also don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.