This paper provides a general overview of the subsea architecture for safe system shutdowns as currently defined in today’s generic subsea systems application requirements. Subsequently, this paper identifies emerging requirements and associated characteristic complexities in the design and use of the key features of emerging subsea shutdown systems. This paper critically examines the objectives and benefits of the shift towards the selective high integrity controlled or commanded shut-down patterns. Using two similar projects with comparable application parameters for safe shutdown, we submit a platform that can be used when differentiating between the pre-requisites and solutions for subsea control systems; now and in the future.