I was recently perusing video game news and came across an article that said that Atari is acquiring Nightdive Studios. Hearing this news has left a mixed feeling in me since, on one hand, becoming part of Atari might help to assuage my current criticisms of Nightdive Studios but, on the other hand, there is a very real risk that what makes Nightdive Studios so unique could become undone. Given this information, I thought I’d explain why I believe Nightdive Studios is important in the video game industry, what I think about their releases and some of the concerns I have.
Let’s start with the history of Nightdive Studios. The company was founded by Stephen Kick and Alix Kick in 2012 with the express goal of “Bringing lost and forgotten gaming treasures back from the depths“. As for why they set up the company, while on holiday in Central America, Stephen Kick discovered that his copy of System Shock 2 wouldn’t work with his laptop. After attempting to find a new online copy, he learned that there was no legal way to acquire System Shock 2. Upon research, he learned that the rights to System Shock had ended up at an insurance company called “Meadowbrook Insurance” and contacted them. Meadowbrook Insurance was keen to see the games rereleased and the success after release encouraged Stephen and Alix Kick to continue releasing games that are no longer available.
Since then, Nightdive Studios has updated and rereleased dozens of games such as the first two Turok games, Wizardry VI-VIII, I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream etc. while also working for other publishers on updated releases of games like Doom 64, Titanic: Adventure Out Of Time, Humongous Entertainment games such as Pajama Sam and Freddi Fish etc. They’ve also released a couple of original games with the most notable being a full remake of the original System Shock that is due for release on the 30th of May.
What is particularly praiseworthy about Nightdive Studios is the extensive improvements that they incorporate into their rereleases which go beyond improvements to graphics and performance such as quality of life improvements and even finishing and incorporating unfinished content from the original release. Much of this comes down to their KEX Engine, a video game engine that allows them to make these improvements for older games rather than doing an emulated rerelease. However, it’s worth noting that not all of their rereleases have been positively received with the most notable example being Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition which was negatively received for smudgy graphics and new bugs which eventually led to Nightdive Studios, beyond releasing updates for Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition, including the original version of the game for free as part of the release.
As much as I admire Nightdive Studios for their objective, I do have a personal issue which is that their catalogue thus far is lacking variety. First-person shooters is the genre that they’ve dealt with the most with the second being puzzle games and the third being RPGs. It’s also worth noting that their games have, thus far, been predominantly from American developers. While I greatly appreciate the work they do, I can’t help but dream about them rereleasing platformers, both 2D and 3D, strategy games etc. while also hoping that they’ll rerelease more international games with Japanese games being the area I wish they’d branch into the most. It’s possible that their acquisition by Atari will assist in this but it’s also just as possible that Nightdive Studios could become more restricted in what they release. As for when I’ll learn whether this is the case or not, I don’t know. Regardless, their work deserves to be supported, particularly in an industry where preservation is becoming more and more of a concern.
Let me know if you agree with me that Nightdive Studios is important to the video game industry, whether you’ve played any of their games, which ones you’ve enjoyed, your thoughts on their philosophy, what you think about their acquisition by Atari, if you also want to see greater variety in their releases and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.