Vapourware System Shock 3 by OtherSide Entertainment - taken over by Tencent!

[jewboy]

Kind of dumb to say that sort of thing after grimoire got released. Never say never again. That should be grimoire's motto. Maybe SS3 will get released but like in 2030 or 2040. SS2 not being an RPG just makes a sequel even harder to market though.

 

[anvi]

What happened? I don't wanna read this thread. Someone pamper me.

 

[Terenty]

Warren saw that he became a senile old man and theres no hope for the project

 

[zapotec]

i have heard they plan to change the name to system buttshock 3

 

[ciox]

i have heard they plan to change the name to system buttshock 3

Seymour, is that you?

 

[anvi]

they shud of called it System Poop.

 

[Jenkem]

shodan? more like sho'nuff

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[Steamboat Willie]

"I'm not worried about reaching more people than some past efforts."

Reaching more than the dozens or so people who bought and kept Underworld Ascendant is an awfully low bar to set.

 

[MasterLobar]

This from their community manager on why UA launched in an unfinished state is actually remarkable:

We had a deadline of November. If we didn't launch in November, we would not launch at all.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/692840/discussions/0/1848072002772540554/?ctp=2#c1813170373217186893

The only way how this could possibly make sense is that 505 had a cancellation option in case the game wasn't ready until November 2018, and given the state the game was in, OS knew they would have used that option to get out of this mess.

That makes me wonder if Starbreeze had an unconditional cancellation option for SS3 or if OS failed to deliver key features that were promised by February 2019 and that gave Starbreeze a welcome opportunity to cancel their deal.

The latter sounds much more likely. No studio would agree to give their publisher an unconditional cancellation option, and give the publisher the power to blow up the whole project for no reason.

There must have been some sort of contractual breach on the part of OS, possibly the game being so far behind schedule that key contract deliverables were missed.

 

[MasterLobar]

It's also actually pretty sick that this guy is still pretending everything is fine and he is 'not worried.'


Warren, your company...

...has just produced a catastrophic failure with UA after 4 years of developing time

...is now a prime example in the gameing community for scamming KS backers, breaking promises and lying about their game

...exists for more than 5 years and hasn't made a dollar ever since (oh, sorry, forgot Underworld Overlord)

...needed a $3.5 million cash infusion from owners/management six months ago because your UA publisher pulled the plug one month before launch

...just lost a $12 million publishing deal for SS3 - the only other game in the pipeline

...has to fully refund the former SS3 publisher for $7 million they spent so far on the project

...has basically nothing to show for SS3 so far apart from 3 screenshots and a lackluster 30-second trailer

...hasn't found a new publisher two months after Starbreeze cancelled and there aren't even rumors about who could be interested


Wouldn't it be time to be honest with everyone and admit the wheels are coming off this bus?

 

[Old Hans]

'immersive sim' is such a cancer buzzword. I needs to fucking die

system shock was sci-fi ultima underworld on a spaceship. no one gives a shit if you can bake bread & pick up empty bottles. People want complex, well realized space dungeon, just like the other two.

 

[Old Hans]

Wouldn't it be time to be honest with everyone and admit the wheels are coming off this bus?

they're too busy being immersed in their own simulated fart sniffing

 

[Steamboat Willie]

they're too busy being immersed in their own simulated fart sniffing

Yep. Your post in the UA thread was spot-on. Old fucks still thinking they have the Midas Touch with games; not realizing everything they've done since the 90s has been shit. They remind me of old man George Romero putting out shit like Diary of the Dead and thinking he's still defining a genre.

 

[Old Hans]

they're too busy being immersed in their own simulated fart sniffing

Yep. Your post in the UA thread was spot-on. Old fucks still thinking they have the Midas Touch with games; not realizing everything they've done since the 90s has been shit. They remind me of old man George Romero putting out shit like Diary of the Dead and thinking he's still defining a genre.

That is exactly how I felt about Romero too. the original trilogy was so good, then 20 years later he shows back up with Land of the Dead which was total garbage

 

[rusty_shackleford]

"Immersive sim" is not a genre.

 

[Steamboat Willie]

"Immersive sim" is not a genre.

Within the context of that Tweet it actually means "unmitigated disaster".

 

[ciox]

Running behind was a common story ever since the old days. The difference is the all nighters and people thinking things over 24/7 and fully dedicating themselves, nobody does that shit anymore, it's just not trendy.

Now the company atmosphere is a haze of fursuiters clinking champagne glasses and patting themselves on the back for reaching various diversity/social engineering goals, regardless of the project's state.

 

[Steamboat Willie]

Running behind was a common story ever since the old days. The difference is the all nighters and people thinking things over 24/7 and fully dedicating themselves, nobody does that shit anymore, it's just not trendy.

Now they just lock themselves in offices to cry and go tattle to Kotaku whenever they get yelled at.

 

[Alienman]

I think Warren might have copyrighted that term in some way, and hoping it will take off so he can start to collect.

 

[Child of Malkav]

'immersive sim' is such a cancer buzzword. I needs to fucking die

system shock was sci-fi ultima underworld on a spaceship. no one gives a shit if you can bake bread & pick up empty bottles. People want complex, well realized space dungeon, just like the other two.

What exactly is the problem with this term? They created it. Maybe it's not the most creative name but at least you use it to refer to games like Deus Ex 1/Dishonored/Prey 2017/Dark Messiah/Arx Fatalis/Thief/System Shock/Ultima etc.or games that have certain elements from the ones mentioned. Again, maybe the name is stupid but it stuck and most people know what you're referring to when you use that term.

 

[ciox]

'immersive sim' is such a cancer buzzword. I needs to fucking die

system shock was sci-fi ultima underworld on a spaceship. no one gives a shit if you can bake bread & pick up empty bottles. People want complex, well realized space dungeon, just like the other two.

What exactly is the problem with this term? They created it. Maybe it's not the most creative name but at least you use it to refer to games like Deus Ex 1/Dishonored/Prey 2017/Dark Messiah/Arx Fatalis/Thief/System Shock/Ultima etc.or games that have certain elements from the ones mentioned. Again, maybe the name is stupid but it stuck and most people know what you're referring to when you use that term.

Whatever it started as, it's kind of a useless term now used to try and bridge walking simulators with real games and pretend they're more than they are, as shown in this shitshow:

You think of an immersive sim now and you think of things like upgradeable player powers, AIs that have emergent abilities when they interact with each other, and having an economy so you can buy equipment and all that stuff. When I was working on Minerva's Den, and it was a reference forward design wise, and then I was working on Gone Home, I replayed System Shock 1, and it was sort of a surprise to me to realize there is no skill tree. There is no economy. This is about a place, and you as a character with a role in it. It has enemies in it, different ways you can address problems, but there's so much that we think of as being part of what an immersive sim is that is really just the version of it that we've arrived at.

Being able to say 'System Shock 1 is an immersive sim because it has a sense of place and it has you being able to fulfill a role within that space,' and so a game like Gone Home is kind of an exploration of how we apply that to a mundane setting. How we apply that to a space that's more familiar to you. How do we apply that to something where finding the audio diaries is the actual game, not just a thing you do while playing the game. Continuing to explore what else is already inside immersive sims is a really exciting thing to be able to do.

Warren: In some sense, actually, System Shock is actually the purest expression of what an immersive sim can and should be. All the character stats, upgradeable this and economy that, all that stuff you were talking about, it kind of turns things into a hybrid RPG-immersive sim thing that I love, I absolutely adore that kind of game, but in a sense if you're talking about the absolute purest form of the genre, for me it's going to be System Shock.

At least Warren slapped that ridiculousness down back then and will hopefully keep it up in the future.

 

[Old Hans]

'immersive sim' is such a cancer buzzword. I needs to fucking die

system shock was sci-fi ultima underworld on a spaceship. no one gives a shit if you can bake bread & pick up empty bottles. People want complex, well realized space dungeon, just like the other two.

What exactly is the problem with this term? They created it. Maybe it's not the most creative name but at least you use it to refer to games like Deus Ex 1/Dishonored/Prey 2017/Dark Messiah/Arx Fatalis/Thief/System Shock/Ultima etc.or games that have certain elements from the ones mentioned. Again, maybe the name is stupid but it stuck and most people know what you're referring to when you use that term.

I think Otherside Entertainment made me sick of hearing that phrase. they thought immersive sim = killing a skeleton 48 different ways, But they forgot to add all the other stuff that made those games good. Like well designed, open levels.

 

[cherry blossom]

The kind of interactive/emergent depth I expect from a sci-fi "immersive sim" these days is open in-game systems governing open levels. Think of temporary environmental controls in Alien Isolation that could be used to misdirect the Alien, but more extensive, far reaching and not limited to how to kill/distract boogeys.

Yeah, not gonna happen in SS3, even in a fantasy best case scenario.

All of our game development heroes; they are worth nothing, no good than complete strangers with a track record of developing hidden object games for mobile. All that past glory is just happy coincidences of the right mindset in the right time with the right circumstances.

 

[MasterLobar]

If you had $12 million, would you rather have the publishing rights for SS3 or this palace near Santa Monica (and $1 million left over)?