It's been an exciting couple of months for Otherside Entertainment. The company first confirmed to be working on System Shock 3 and then, just last week, it announced the hiring of none other than Warren Spector.
Spector, who produced the first System Shock (not to mention some other milestones such as Thief: The Dark Project and Deus Ex), will be starting a new studio branch in Austin to work specifically on System Shock 3.
The legendary game designer had abandoned active game development in order to start a game development program at the University of Texas: the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy. Gamasutra interviewed him to understand why he came back into the gaming industry, and during the chat he also revealed some tidbits about System Shock 3.
First of all, he made it clear that he doesn't really like the free-to-play (F2P) business model and will stick to premium unless otherwise required by Otherside Entertainment.
Again, it's early to say. I've been on record as saying I don't much care for the free-to-play model, so unless, as a strategic thing, OtherSide decides that's the way to go, I don't think that will happen. I probably won't be doing free-to-play. I'm kind of a premium game guy.
Furthermore, he added that System Shock 3 will provide a complete experience at launch with additional content such as new characters and new places to be added later. With the current debate around DLC content in the industry, it's certainly a good starting point; then again, Spector comes from the old school of development.
But I think you have to provide ongoing support and expansions, so I want to provide a complete experience right up front that's worth people's money, and then on an ongoing basis provide new content: new characters, new mechanics, new places to explore and adventures to go on. I think that's what you'll see coming from my studio as we work on System Shock 3.
With Warren Spector officially coming on board, Otherside Entertainment is now for all intents and purposes Looking Glass 2.0, having already Paul Neurath, Nate Wells and Robb Waters in its roster. Their first game, the Kick-started Underworld Ascendant, is looking promising so far and should release in late 2016.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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