Night Dive Studios
Reviving and preserving classic games for modern platforms.
Night Dive Studios, Inc. (trade name: Nightdive Studios) is an American video game developer based in Vancouver, Washington and a subsidiary of Atari SA. The company is known for obtaining rights to abandonware video games, updating them for compatibility with modern platforms, and re-releasing them via digital distribution services, supporting preservation of older games. Many of the company's releases use the internally developed KEX Engine.
- Founded
- 2012
- Founder
- Stephen Kick and Alix Kick
- Notable Project
- System Shock Remake
- Affiliation
- Independent (acquired by Atari SA in May 2023)
- Role
- Developer and publisher of classic game remasters and remakes
Lore & Background
Nightdive Studios was founded in November 2012 by Stephen and Alix Kick, former video game artists for Sony Online Entertainment, after Stephen Kick was unable to purchase a copy of the 1999 game System Shock 2. He negotiated with the rightsholder Star Insurance Company, which had acquired System Shock and other assets from the defunct developer Looking Glass Studios, and Nightdive Studios re-released the game via GOG.com in February 2013. The company was acquired by Atari SA in May 2023.
In Their Own Story
The terminal flickered in the dim server room. On screen, a familiar message: 'Citadel Station is under quarantine.' But this time, the pixels were sharper, the shadows deeper. A young coder—barely old enough to have played the original—watched as SHODAN's iconic face rendered in full 3D. 'You are nothing,' she hissed, and the sound was crisp, terrifying. He smiled. The nightmare was back, exactly as it should be, yet somehow more real than ever. Night Dive had done it again.
Reader's Guide
The company's first release was System Shock 2 on GOG.com in February 2013, using a fan patch as groundwork. Subsequent projects included re-releases of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Wizardry VI, VII, and 8, The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour, 28 edutainment games from Humongous Entertainment, Bad Mojo, Strife: Veteran Edition, PowerSlave, Noctropolis, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, and Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion. The company acquired the System Shock IP from Star Insurance Company in August 2015 and announced a remake of the first System Shock. It also licensed the System Shock IP to OtherSide Entertainment for System Shock 3. The studio attempted to acquire rights for No One Lives Forever but could not get the three companies with stake in the IP to negotiate.
Did You Know?
- The company name was inspired by the founders' shared passion for diving, especially night diving.
- Stephen Kick once experienced a night dive in the Great Barrier Reef.
- The company's first hire is believed to be Larry Kuperman or other early team members, not Daniel Grayshon.
- Nightdive Studios rebranded from Night Dive Studios in May 2016.
More in Development & Legacy
Elsewhere in the System Shock universe
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