Crowdfunding a game to pay for its development has become the norm in recent years.
Companies that have successfully created games before are now looking to sites like Kickstarter or Fig to fund their next project. Many companies have achieved their funding goal in a matter of days or hours, and Nightdive Studios managed to do it in a month.
Nightdive Studios, the team behind the 1994 System Shock, looked to the Kickstarter website for fan support of this project. While they managed to gain a little over $1.3 million total, it turned out not to be enough. In a little under three years, the seed money for the project dried up as the budget grew beyond the total money raised.
While fans eagerly awaited the release of the remake, the team decided to go a different route. They wanted to create an entirely new game with the name System Shock, a completely different plan from what was first intended.
CEO Personally Apologizes to Fans
Stephen Kick, lead on System Shock 2018, said this in an update on the project’s Kickstarter posted February 16:
“Ultimately the responsibility for the decisions lies with me. As the CEO and founder of Nightdive Studios, a company that was built on the restoration of the System Shock franchise, 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.”
Will the Game Still Be Made?
While the team is definitely on hiatus, Stephen Kick assures fans that development will continue in the future and the game will be released, and that all of Nightdive’s promises on System Shock will be fulfilled.
If you are a fan of the series and would still like to play System Shock ’94, go to http://store.steampowered.com/app/410710/System_Shock_Enhanced_Edition/ to purchase and play the original and Enhanced Editions.
