Swedish publisher Starbreeze Studios is going through a rough time, especially after the failure that was Overkill’s The Walking Dead, which launched last fall. Well, continue in their route of what could be construed as bad luck, they’ve decided to hand over the publishing rights of System Shock 3 to OtherSide Entertainment, meaning that when the game is finally ready to launch, you won’t see Starbreeze’s logo splashed on the screen when it boots up.
Over on the Starbreeze website there’s an announcement stating that the publishing rights for System Shock 3 have returned to OtherSide Entertainment.
Starbreeze first acquired the rights in March of 2017, but later decided to agree to return the rights, even after they helped partially fund the game. Mikael Nermark, acting CEO Starbreeze AB, commented about the changeover, saying…
“I believe this is the best solution for us, although it is sad that we cannot complete the project with OtherSide. System Shock 3 is a fantastic title developed in cooperation with the industry legend Warren Spector and I am looking forward to seeing the game released”,
The game originally went into full development back in 2016 but quickly dropped off the radar.
The System Shock 3 project is separate from the System Shock Remake that was in development by Nightdive Studios. Unfortunately both projects seem to have hit their rocky patches.
In the case of System Shock 3 it appears as if Starbreeze is pulling out and letting OtherSide Entertainment deal with the publishing consequences. It’s possible someone else could step in and pick up the publishing rights at this point, but it’s probably a long shot.
Starbreeze has their own troubles to deal with after the CEO was fired and the police raided their offices. They’re trying to recover and publish games, with Psychonauts 2 and Ten Crowns still on the docket.