Nightdive announces plans to resurrect failed classics like Haze: the resurrection of forgotten PS3 and Xbox 360 games?

Nightdive Studios, now part of Atari, has built a reputation for resurrecting cult favorites and titles with great potential. With successful remasters of classics such as System Shock, Turok and Quake, the studio is now looking to make a generational leap and focus on remastering titles from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era, despite the technical hurdles involved.

In a recent chat with VGC, Nightdive studio head Stephen Kick and director of business development Larry Kuperman talked about how they are ready to create remasters focused on the PS3 and Xbox 360 generations. The main obstacle is the complexity of the architecture of these consoles, especially the PS3, which is known for its unique design and difficult programming. However, Nightdive relies on its KEX engine to overcome these challenges.

“I think that architecture – I remember the talk when the system was first released, of how difficult it was for developers to ‘get’ it – and that’s a big problem with backwards compatibility,” said Stephen Kick. “If we get to that – or I should say when – we get to the PS3 era games, it will be a challenge that we have to face. But I think that we’ve had enough experience to where we can do a serviceable job on a PS3 remaster.”

Beyond architecture: the missing code problem

In addition to the technical challenges, another major obstacle is the availability of the original source code and assets. Many of the studios responsible for the games of that era no longer exist, making it difficult to recover the files needed for a faithful remaster.

However, Nightdive has a plan: to work directly with the original developers where possible, using the knowledge gained over the years. The goal is not only to restore these games, but to improve them - whether by correcting frame rates, optimizing load times, or improving texture resolution - to deliver a more polished and modern experience.

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