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2K Games announce new Bioshock

After a six year wait, 2K Games has finally revealed that a new Bioshock game is in the works.

‘There’s always a lighthouse. There’s always a man. There’s always a city.’ It’s just taken 2K Games half a decade to announce a new Bioshock game.

The development for the unknown title (presumably Bioshock *something*) will be headed up by 2K Games’ internal studio Cloud Chamber, in both California and Montreal. From what we’re hearing, I wouldn’t get too excited just yet though. The game won’t be here anytime soon.

It’s felt like an age since we said emotional goodbyes to Booker, Elizabeth, and the mastermind that created them both, Ken Levine, but we’re going to have to wait a little longer to see what 2K have in store for our beloved franchise.

A statement on Monday finally confirmed on-going murmurs that cogs were turning on a new Bioshock project but forewarned fans that the game would be in development ‘for the next several years’. Unfortunately, the statement also failed to address pressing questions regarding potential platforms and projected time-frames – let alone a release date.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Cloud Chamber boss Kelley Gilmore appears to fully grasp the affinity fans feel with Bioshock and is saying all the right things to assure us that the next entry will be worth the wait. In a recent interview with gamesindustry.biz, Gilmore asserted ‘making the next Bioshock game is a responsibility that does not fall lightly on any of us’, and promised gamers ‘yet-to-be-discovered worlds’ that ‘push the boundaries of what is possible in the video game medium’ – clearly an important goal for Gilmore and her team given the acclaim the originals garnered for their storytelling.

Bioshock is largely regarded as one of the jewels of the last console generation and the prospect of a new title being beefed up to maximise the potential of the Xbox Scarlett and PlayStation 5 is truly exciting.

The power of the new hardwares could actually allow for the first cross-world Bioshock yet. We could be brawling Big Daddies and harvesting little sisters one minute, and raining down machine gun fire on Handymen from skyhooks the next. In a universe with infinite lighthouses (worlds)… surely, they can give us a good three or four.

As we mentioned earlier, Irrational Games is dissolved and genius writer Ken Levine canne be convinced to hop on board for the new title. Gilmore, to her credit, has retained plenty of the existing pedigree and talent from previous Bioshock games though. Hoagy de la Plante is back in a creative director role having worked on Bioshock 1 and 2; Scott Sinclair is back to work his magic as art director after the Rapture duo and Infinite; and Jonathan Pelling is lending his talents as design director after previously working as the art team creative director on Infinite.

It’s exciting, but our overriding feeling is one of disappointment. 2K dropped some great news and then ducked the second we asked for some juicy details. There’s nothing we can do but wait for the devs to drop some clarity on the pressing questions. In the meantime, I’m off to curb my frustration with a wrench and whole load of splicers – on Bioshock: The Collection, that is.

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