Monday 31 July 2006
A sequel to System Shock 2, the deep-space shoot-and-survive game, is unlikely ever to appear according to Ken Levine, lead designer at Irrational Games, who is currently working on BioShock.

The licence for the series is owned by Electronic Arts and fans had hoped to see EA create a third System Shock, but Levine says, "EA just didn't give a shit about that game."

Levine explains the situation so far: "I did a story design for System Shock 3, and they [EA] had it, and they didn't give a shit. It's just not their thing. They didn't see it as a big brand and I didn't want that uphill struggle". He also commented during the interview with PC Gamer US magazine that "if EA were to do it, it would've been just a regular first-person shooter with a boss monster at the end."

Above: Ken Levine helped develop System Shock 2, which was a cult sensation and a critical success

With EA controlling the System Shock name and obviously unwilling to do anything with it, it's a big disappointment for fans of the series. Especially as Levine praises Irrational's publisher 2K Games, saying "they believe in this kind of game."

With BioShock already looking fantastic, here's hoping that success with that game leads to another dose of System Shock.