We’re coming up on the tenth anniversary of the release of 2013's Shadowrun Returns, and it’s only today I learned that the game (and its two sequels) were never released on console. I just assumed they had been, at some point! That sucks, so it’s wonderful to see Paradox get around to fixing that with the announcement of Shadowrun Trilogy: Console Edition.
Originally announced last year for just the Switch, today we learned that the games are coming to all modern consoles, old and new, which means not just the Switch but both PlayStation (PS4 & PS5) and Xbox (Xbox One & Xbox Series X/S) consoles as well. Shadowrun Trilogy: Console Edition will be out on June 21.
As you may have already worked out from the title, the bundle includes the three modern Shadowrun PC games: Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong. They’re not straight ports, either; the trilogy’s press release mentions “upscaled graphics”, “improved performance” and gameplay optimised for the use of control pads instead of a keyboard + mouse:
The Shadowrun Trilogy, a remastered release of the Shadowrun Returns RPGs originally released by Harebrained Schemes, has been updated for a console experience, with upscaled graphics, improved performance, and controller-optimized gameplay. All three titles in the series will launch simultaneously for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5
If you’ve got this far without knowing what the hell I’m talking about, the Shadowrun games are based on the old Shadowrun tabletop RPG series, whose designer, Jordan Weisman, was on the development team for these adaptations, turning the sprawling role-playing adventure set in a dystopian sci-fi future—where magic lives alongside cyberpunk tech—into a singleplayer, turn-based video game.
Some fun trivia before we go: the first game in the new series, Shadowrun Returns, released in 2013, was the first ever video game to launch after raising over $1 million on Kickstarter.