System Shock 3 Is Pushing for “AAA Quality at the AA Price Tag” – Warren Spector

System Shock is one of the most beloved classic franchises in the PC gaming space, so it goes without saying that System Shock 3 is a game that a great many people are looking forward to with bated breath. Whether or not it’s able to live up to the name it carries and the legacy of its predecessors remains to be seen, but the development team at OtherSide Entertainment – led by industry legend and System Shock creator Warren Spector – is definitely trying its best to make sure it does.

Speaking with GameSpot, Spector spoke about the approach OtherSide has adopted for System Shock 3’s development, and how it’s an AA production rather than a AAA one from a budget and scope perspective. That said, Spector assures that he’s been pushing his team of developers to craft an experience fitting of the AAA bill, in spite of its development.

“I feel more pressure on this project than I think I have on any other,” said Spector. “Even working with Mickey Mouse, I knew we could do the job, and I knew we had the budget and the team to live up to people’s expectations. Here, we really are in this sort of ‘AA’ space, not the AAA space. Paul Neurath, my partner, and I made a conscious decision that we’d already been down that road of AAA, many times and wanted to do something smaller. But I think the AAA expectations are still there.”

“And so I think if you ask my team, I think you’d hear that I’m pushing them pretty hard for AAA quality at the AA price tag,” he continued. “There are expectations with the scope of the game and the legacy of the original games. So yeah, there’s some pressure. You bet.”

System Shock 3 is scheduled for a launch on PC and consoles – which remain unspecified – but currently does not have an estimated release date. In the meantime, you can check out the game’s first gameplay footage (or a tease of it anyway) through here.