Nightdive Studios exists because of System Shock. The brilliant remaster studio that’s revived the likes of Star Wars: Dark Forces, Turok, and more only exists due to CEO Stephen Kick’s wish to play System Shock 2 on modern PCs.
While the team has remastered the original System Shock and its sequel, as well as fully remade the original in a gruelling near-decade of development hell, they have never commercialised the franchise in the way that almost everything is nowadays.
Despite being one of the most iconic PC gaming franchises of all time, there is no System Shock board game, no figures of The Many or SHODAN bobble heads. Nightdive hasn’t sold the TV rights to Amazon to make a series and a game show spin-off, and there’s no comic books or tie-in novels. Hell, at the time of publication, System Shock 3 hasn’t even released.
“I remember in the early days when we were just getting started, I was trying to find System Shock stuff, merch, if you will,” Kick told FRVR. “Just things to acquire and not-so-much collect, but just to treasure, to create a museum internally of things that are related to it that we can preserve and appreciate.”
The reality of the situation is that most of the physical merchandise surrounding System Shock has been produced by Nightdive in the form of Kickstarter backer rewards: T-Shirts, Art Books, patches, a repair-boy figurine, and Steelbook copies of the game. Outside of that, it’s just old strategy guides.
Even when created backer rewards to fund development of System Shock Remake, Kick didn’t immediately dive into commercialising the series. “I wanted to make things that would compliment those [classic] things,” he said. “I didn’t want to make stuff that didn’t feel like it belonged. A part of me would kind of die if I saw like a System Shock Funko Pop, you know? Like, I don’t hate them, but I don’t think it’s right for that IP”.
“We have been very conscious about how we merchandise and how we market and how we present System Shock,” Kick continued, “because we do have reverence for it. It’s an important part of gaming. There were many years when System Shock 2 was considered to be one of the greatest games of all time, specifically on PC, and we still feel that way. We want to treat it that way.”
Kick has become System Shock’s self-appointed “steward” for the foreseeable future, and there’s a desire to protect the series. Shock is marketable, Shock is iconic, but there’s no desire to slice it up and dish it out to make quick cash. While System Shock 3 is in some form of development, it’s not being pushed out and, judging from the recent past, it likely won’t release if it isn’t good.
“It feels like a long time ago now, I got a full tattoo sleeve of SHODAN as kind of almost like an offering of thanks to what she’s done for, not only me, but everyone that works at Nightdive [and] the Atari team now, fans of the original, to me and my family.” Kick said. “It’s hard to sum into words what the game means to me now.”
While, eventually, there will be more System Shock, the series will never be a Marvel or a Star Wars, or even a Halo. Never expect to rush to Amazon to buy a new novel about Rebecca Lansing’s story on Citadel Station, or a story about Edward Diego’s rise to power, and don’t expect a SHODAN Funko bobble head either.
