Warren Spector joins Otherside Entertainment for Underworld, System Shock

Man, talk about the Once and Future King. I was already pretty excited when Otherside Entertainment announced they would be partnering with Night Dive Studio to develop System Shock 3. But now the original game's creator--Warren Spector himself--has joined Otherside as a studio director to consult on both System Shock 3 and Underworld Ascendant. Otherside already has several ex-Looking Glass developers so it looks like the band is getting back together to finish that album they always talked about.

Spector shaped a lot of my teenage philosophizing through his uncompromising approach to the cyberpunk genre, in classics like System Shock and Deus Ex. I must admit I was disappointed when he took a job with Disney making Epic Mickey, and then seemed to retire into academia. Meanwhile the System Shock brand languished in EA's copyright hell deadlock, and its Bioshock spiritual successors--while good--never really nailed the same creepy, horror-oriented cyberpunk vibe.

Now that Night Dive and Otherside have rescued all of the System Shock rights, and have put it into the hands of developers who actually give a damn about the series' history, things are finally looking up. Having Warren Spector onboard means that SHODAN will finally get the glorious resurrection she deserves. You didn't think you could escape her that easily did you, insect?

Source: gamesindustry.biz