Back in December when System Shock 3 was officially announced the developers OtherSide Entertainment briefly name-dropped Warren Spector as one of their consultants and left it at that.

But it seems that the excitement for System Shock 3 is contagious because according to a Facebook post that went out today Warren Spector has left his academia job and is now joining up with OtherSide Entertainment to work on System Shock 3 & Underworld Ascendant. Here's what Spector had to say about his return to game development:

“I’ve loved working with students as Director of the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy in the University of Texas’ Moody College of Communication. But when the opportunity to have a bigger role in bringing Underworld Ascendant to life, as well as playing in the System Shock universe once again, helping to bring these games to a 21st century audience, I just couldn’t say no.

Working on System Shock was one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in my career and it’s hard to describe how much I’m looking forward to sharing with players what SHODAN has been up to since the last game was released.” 

If you're relatively new to PC gaming you might just dismiss this announcement as yet another veteran developer joining an indie studio but believe me when I say this time around its different. Warren Spector has been either a producer, designer or director behind some of the best PC games ever made: System Shock, Deus Ex, Thief and the Ultima series (the actually good ones) so to see him work his magic on those franchises once again is music to my ears.

As of right now there isn't much information on System Shock 3 but if OtherSide Entertainment has actually managed to get Spector to quit his well-paying academia job to join them in their venture I can't help but imagine that its shaping up to be quite good indeed.