You would think that after that awesome teaser at GDC 2019 that things would be humming along at OtherSide Entertainment with System Shock 3‘s development. That seems to be far from the case, as according to an article at VDC, OtherSide has been bleeding employees.
According to the article, design director Chase Jones left OtherSide last week, joining other key staff including “System Shock 3‘s writer & director, senior designer, lead programmer, QA lead, senior environment artist and more” who have all either left or been laid off. There’s even a thread on the OtherSide forum that’s been cataloguing the departures since June.
So, what’s the cause of all of this? According to a former OtherSide developer on the RPG Codex forum, Starbreeze’s implosion after the failure of Overkill’s The Walking Dead, and subsequent selling back System Shock 3‘s publishing rights to OtherSide caused obvious havoc. OtherSide had been looking for another publisher, and was prepared to self-publish the game, but that obviously no longer appears to be the case.
“If Starbreeze hadn’t gone into crisis I think we would’ve delivered something interesting with some fresh and innovative gameplay, but a much smaller game than what people were expecting and inevitably disappointing for a sequel to such a beloved franchise.” As for if the project has been abandoned, the employee responded, “I don’t actually know what’s going on, but the team is no longer employed there.”