Tencent buys System Shock 3 rights

[Cynical]

https://www.pcgamer.com/tencent-appears-to-be-the-new-owner-of-system-shock-3-and-4-websites/

 

Quote

Update: System Shock studio Otherside Entertainment made it official today, announcing that Chinese conglomerate Tencent will assume control of the series going forward.

 

 

 

 

1/2 We are happy to announce that Tencent will be taking the #SystemShock franchise forward.May 20, 2020


"As a smaller Indie studio, it had been challenging for us to carry the project on our own," Otherside wrote. "We believe Tencent's deep capabilities and expertise as a leading game company will bring the franchise to new heights."

 

 

Well, this is a thing.  I'm curious to see how much worse it can be handled than how NightDive and Otherside have handled it!  Remember the good old days when EA owned it, and how awesome that was?  Ah, memories of better times...

Edited May 21, 2020 by Cynical

[snapshot]

System Shock as a battle royale with paid costumes, SHODAN will be the virus.

[Bauul]

So genuine question: I know about the fears of Tencent's relationship with the Chinese government and the less-than-savory connotations that brings, but I'd be interested to know about actual examples of Tencent's influence causing negative changes to properties it has invested in.

 

I freely admit to having next to no knowledge on the subject, but a scan through articles like this one seems to indicate Tencent is mostly interested in controlling the games and publishing rights within China, and seem less interested in influencing international markets.

 

Is that accurate, or am I missing a bigger picture?

[Denim Destroyer]

Tencent does not own the franchise, the fourth sentence in the article even mentions this. A better thread title would be Tencent is the new publisher of System Shock 3.

Quote

 

While the tweet implies that Tencent now owns System Shock, Nightdive Studios, which is currently working on a System Shock remake, clarified that it remains the owner of the property. 

 

"OtherSide licensed certain rights from us to make sequels. Those rights have now been transferred to Tencent," a rep said. "Nothing about that transfer in any way impacts our ownership."

 

 

[Chip]

I still can't wait for that remake! The owner could mean nothing. I don't own that many games from Indie publishers, but I don't think they usually make them into pay-to-win games (like EA has done recently) If EA still owned it, it would be this,

[hybridial]

I have to say I'm not really super invested in System Shock 3, really. 

 

I'd like for Nightdive to still be able to make the enhanced version of 2 they've talked about, and hope that edition will allow for further developments for mods and such for that game. *edit* - saw the clarification for it, that's good

 

I tend to find these days, just because a game carries a name, it doesn't mean its what you want. Kinda in that situation with Baldur's Gate 3. I mean a lot of people liked Larian's more recent games that used the same engine, I frankly found them to be massive letdowns.

 

After stewing about that for a while I just realised it doesn't really matter. Baldur's Gate 3's name is a marketing ploy, nothing more. System Shock 3 might end up great but I don't think there's anything to be gained from pinning hopes on it. 

Edited May 20, 2020 by hybridial

[Bauul]

11 minutes ago, LiT_gam3r said:

If EA still owned it, it would be this,

 

You really like raising this don't you?  Maybe keep it to the thread you already made.

[seed]

I honestly don't know what to make of it. NDS still owns the IP, Tencent only bought SOME rights to make sequels, and nothing more.

 

And Tencent is a name I've never heard of.

[Chip]

1 hour ago, Bauul said:

 

You really like raising this don't you?  Maybe keep it to the thread you already made.

The picture wasn't only for the topic. the topic was about EA making DOOM, then I posted the picture, the picture was just there as a joke. I can still use it in other threads, there is no rule against that.

^{I also wish there was a way to erase an old topic. The only thing you can do is edit it to a new one.}

Edited May 20, 2020 by LiT_gam3r

[spineapple tea]

Probably only payed 10 cents.

[Bridgeburner56]

2 hours ago, Bauul said:

So genuine question: I know about the fears of Tencent's relationship with the Chinese government and the less-than-savory connotations that brings, but I'd be interested to know about actual examples of Tencent's influence causing negative changes to properties it has invested in.

 

I freely admit to having next to no knowledge on the subject, but a scan through articles like this one seems to indicate Tencent is mostly interested in controlling the games and publishing rights within China, and seem less interested in influencing international markets.

 

Is that accurate, or am I missing a bigger picture?

Tencent bought a controlling stake in grinding gear games who make path of exile to much angst and hand wringing at the time and the game has been as good or better than ever since. I haven't even heard of a hint of them meddling in anything in terms of how the game is made or what content goes in. 

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Tencent owns 100% of Riot Games (developers of LoL and the recently released and highly controversial Valorant for those living under a rock), and Riot still have complete creative control over their games. Tencent didn't even force them to port LoL to mobile, they made their own clone instead.

So at least in some cases, Tencent isn't that bad as people make it seems.

 

Source and I recommend any people to give this a read.

[mrthejoshmon]

From what I understand Tencent just kinda own or have stakes in gaming related venues, like they own quite a bit of shares and are quite large (I think they own Riot entirely?), I don't see much influence, except for like anti-Chinese government stuff and anti cheats but there's probably not going to be much of that if any at all in System Shock lol...

 

Although, they do own a lot of social media and social monitoring stuff so... There's always that, don't think about that too hard, yeah.

[MikeyScoots]

Not sure how I feel about this. Its kinda like when Bethesda bought the Fallout franchise. Fallout 3 & 4 cool, 76 not so cool. Let's see what happens, and if SS3 sucks we boycott the game nuff said.

[snapshot]

10 minutes ago, MikeyScoots said:

.....if SS3 sucks we boycott the game nuff said.

From what I understand they won't interfere with the development of the game, at worst they might greenlight a separate spin-off or something similar.

[Mr. Freeze]

49 minutes ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

Tencent bought a controlling stake in grinding gear games who make path of exile to much angst and hand wringing at the time and the game has been as good or better than ever since. I haven't even heard of a hint of them meddling in anything in terms of how the game is made or what content goes in. 

 

Was about to post about PoE and how it's gone relatively unchanged, but you beat me to it. 

 

 

[GarrettChan]

3 hours ago, Bauul said:

but I'd be interested to know about actual examples of Tencent's influence causing negative changes to properties it has invested in.

Many of Tencent's products could be (at least) at the edge of plagiarism. They themselves can't create good stuff, and I usually don't care about what they are involved, especially games. Their messengers have too big of a user base, so I have to use it, but they are neither good nor clean.

 

Just my wild guess, I don't think they actually know anything about System Shock series, so probably they won't be the one making it (which is a good thing TBH). However, being a publisher can still influence how the game looks or plays, perhaps.

 

Even as a Chinese myself, I don't really like Tencent. Personally I'm just curious about how this thing will unwrap.

[Edward850]

2 hours ago, MikeyScoots said:

Not sure how I feel about this. Its kinda like when Bethesda bought the Fallout franchise. Fallout 3 & 4 cool, 76 not so cool.

Well no, it's not like that because Tencent didn't buy the franchise, just some rights to SS3. It would be ideal if @Cynical could change the thread title to stop the misinformation.

[DJVCardMaster]

RIP

[snapshot]

To be fair their tweets do look a bit misleading, but yeah they never mention anything about Tencent owning the franchise

 

 

 

[Quasar]

This thread is inaccurate.

[seed]

8 hours ago, TheNoob_Gamer said:

Tencent owns 100% of Riot Games (developers of LoL and the recently released and highly controversial Valorant for those living under a rock)

 

So that's part of who they are.

 

🤣🤣.

[Mordeth]

 

Quote

Otherside Entertainment has now confirmed that Tencent has taken over, but Nightdive still owns the property.

 

Emphasis mine.

[Cynical]

18 hours ago, Edward850 said:

Well no, it's not like that because Tencent didn't buy the franchise, just some rights to SS3. It would be ideal if @Cynical could change the thread title to stop the misinformation.

Done.  And, yes, like @sluggard suggested, Otherside's tweets (combined with a now-deleted one from a NightDive employee that, when asked about the state of the franchise as a whole, said "I've been told I'm not allowed to talk about that") had lead me to believe that Tencent owned the whole IP now.

[battlescroll]

WHEN WILL MORDETH EPISODE 2 COME OUT.

 

[Cynical]

1 minute ago, battlescroll said:

WHEN WILL MORDETH EPISODE 2 COME OUT.

 

Never.

[CyberDreams]

Tencent?? The Chinese company that had the controversy with WOW & that Hong Kong Hearthstone player? Oh hell no. I hate this company.

 

I bet they STILL won't make this newer System Shock game or It'll end up like Duke Nukem Forever.

[Maggle]

Personally, I think nothing will really come of this. Sort of like how nothing's come of System Shock 3 so far. 

[Redneckerz]

On 5/22/2020 at 11:16 PM, battlescroll said:

WHEN WILL MORDETH EPISODE 2 COME OUT.

 

Don't you think its been worked on deep within Doomworld's underground lair?

 

You will never know when or if something escapes. That's why its underground. And secret.

 

Some projects carry longer legacies than the age of some users here. Which is both a scary and a fascinating thought if you think about it.

[battlescroll]

On 5/24/2020 at 2:26 PM, Redneckerz said:

Don't you think its been worked on deep within Doomworld's underground lair?

 

You will never know when or if something escapes. That's why its underground. And secret.

 

Some projects carry longer legacies than the age of some users here. Which is both a scary and a fascinating thought if you think about it.

thats dark