System Shock reboot put on "hiatus", 18 months after it raised $1.3 million on Kickstarter
"We will be back and stronger than ever."
Developer Nightdive Studios has announced that it's putting its highly anticipated System Shock reboot on "hiatus" after letting "things get out of control", just 18 months after the project was successfully Kickstarted to the tune of $1,350,700 USD.
Originally pitched as a remake of Looking Glass Technologies' classic first-person sci-fi horror System Shock, Nightdive's project quickly ballooned in scope. By the time its Kickstarter had commenced in July 2016, the studio was calling it a full reboot, and last year, midway through development, it elected to move the game from Unity to the Unreal Engine.
"As our concept grew and as our team changed", explained Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick in new update on Kickstarter, "so did the scope of what we were doing and with that the budget for the game. As the budget grew, we began a long series of conversations with potential publishing partners. The more that we worked on the game, the more that we wanted to do, and the further we got from the original concepts that made System Shock so great.
"As the CEO and founder of Nightdive Studios, a company that was built on the restoration of the System Shock franchise", Kick continued, "I let things get out of control. I can tell you that I did it for all the right reasons, that I was totally committed to making a great game, but it has become clear to me that we took the wrong path, that we turned our backs on the very people who made this possible, our Kickstarter backers."
To that end, the decision has been made to "put the team on a hiatus while we reassess our path so that we can return to our vision." However, Kick insists this is merely a break, and not the end of the project, "Please accept my personal assurance that we will be back and stronger than ever. System Shock is going to be completed and all of our promises fulfilled."
Kick offered no suggestion as to when the studio's self-imposed break might end and work on the System Shock reboot would resume. Hopefully it won't be too long before Nightdive gets the project back on track though, for the sake of the team and backers alike.