The big picture: Developer OtherSide Entertainment is no longer working on System Shock 3 but as it turns out, it's not the end of the road for the sequel or the franchise. The bigger question at this point is whether or not Tencent will be able to bottle the formula that made the franchise so special to begin with - fear.

A true sequel to System Shock 2, existence of the third installment was confirmed way back in 2015 courtesy of OtherSide Entertainment. We got a teaser in early 2019 and a pre-alpha trailer several months later but by February of this year, word around the water cooler was that the entire team working on the project had been let go.

This left the project in a state of limbo for months but it appears this tale may have a happy ending after all.

OtherSide Entertainment, in confirming that it was no longer working on the game, said Chinese conglomerate Tencent will be taking over the franchise moving forward.

OtherSide noted that as a smaller indie studio, it had been challenging for them to carry the project on their own. The dev said it believes Tencent's deep capabilities and expertise as a leading video game company will bring the franchise to new heights.

It is unclear if Tencent will pick up the project where OtherSide left off or start fresh on its own interpretation.

Also worth noting is Nightdive Studios' involvement. A rep for the video game company told PC Gamer that OtherSide licensed certain rights for the System Shock franchise from them to make sequels and that those rights have now been transferred to Tencent. "Nothing about that transfer in any way impacts our ownership," the spokesperson added.