• News

Nightdive Studios lead reaffirms that they'd love to tackle an Unreal remaster

With the QuakeCon reveal of Quake 2 Remastered, Cliff Bleszinski mused that he'd like to see an Unreal remaster, and Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick still wants to do it.

TJ Denzer

August 17, 2023 10:15 AM

Image via Epic Games

1

QuakeCon 2023 saw the release of a remastered Quake 2 land on PC and consoles, much to the excitement of fans, but all these remasters of classic first-person shooters once again has Cliff Bleszinski wondering where a remaster of Unreal is. What’s more, Nightdive Studios’ CEO Stephen Kick chimed in to say that the studio would be thrilled to tackle such a project.

The conversation resurfaced with Cliff Bleszinski on Twitter, musing about the chance of an Unreal remaster. Bleszinski has suggested the possibility of an Unreal remaster several times over year. Nightdive’s Stephen Kick claimed that after the first Quake Remastered (developed by Nightdive), Bleszinski went to Tim Sweeney to see if he was interested in Nightdive giving Unreal the same treatment, as reported by NME. While Bleszinski said he could say no more about the matter because of legal reasons, clearly Bleszinski is still interested in an Unreal remaster.

Stephen Kick is clearly still interested in pursuing the possibility of an Unreal Remaster too, and even went as far as to quote Cliffy B. and make another pitch in tweets to Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney:

“It should be known [Cliff Bleszinski] stuck his neck out for us and we gave it a real go,” Kick wrote. “[Tim Sweeney], we'd be honored to be the care takers of Unreal. You've seen what we've done with DOOM & Quake, it'd be in good hands at [Nightdive Studios].”

With Nightdive Studios now having recently put out Quake 2 remastered with id Software and MachineGames, Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition with Apogee Software and New Blood Interactive, and the impeccable System Shock remake, it could be said that the studio is continuing to build its reputation as masters of high-quality reworks of classic FPS.

It’s hardly a sign that Tim Sweeney might relent and give Nightdive the baton for Unreal, but hope springs eternal. It sounds like if Sweeney is ever willing to make that call, Nightdive is still ready and waiting.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.