System Shock 3 remains in doubt, but studio is still running

Fans looking forward to System Shock 3 have gained a new shimmer of hope after an employee of Otherside Entertainment took to the official forums. The game was announced in 2015 as the sequel to the horror game from 1999. However, reports earlier in the year indicated that mass departures from the studio meant the possible demise of System Shock 3. Now, Otherside’s VP of marketing and business development, Walter Somol, has reassured fans that the studio has not ceased to exist.

System Shock 3 or something else entirely?

Somol confirmed that Otherside Entertainment is still up and running in remote form due to the pandemic. However, he did not specifically mention System Shock 3.

We’re still here. We’re all working remotely right now, probably like most of you. Our new concept is coming along nicely and we are really excited about it. We have cool and we think distinctive art style for it and we have that and gameplay coming together in UE4. I know it’s a tease, but I just can’t really say anything about it at this point.

Phrasing it as ‘our new concept’ is a particular way of referring to the game. Everybody knows the studio is responsible for System Shock 3 – it’s even referenced in that same forum thread several times. Given that foreknowledge, it seems odd that he admits that this post is a tease that he can’t say anything about. It seems logical that he is indeed talking about System Shock 3, but we can’t be certain. This remains the games industry, after all, which is known for sudden direction changes and surprise announcements.

Further elaboration on whether it is indeed about the long-awaited horror sequel has so far been left in the dust. Still, fans can at least sleep easy knowing that the studio still exists in some form. However, the omission of the title’s exact name may end up only making fans more nervous.