Its been over a decade since we have gotten a new Bioshock game. Fans had almost given up hope that we would ever see another sequel until Bioshock 4 was announced to be in development in 2019. However, the vibe continues at a disheartening rate.
Between leadership changes and now failing to pass an internal review, the game is going through massive overhauls. Essentially, it’s starting back to square one in development. With games today getting canceled left and right for lesser reasons, there is a good reason to worry as to if we will ever see another entry in the franchise.
Wesley Yin-Poole over at IGN interviewed Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick on the dangers of the game being canceled. Zelnick responded "It's going to come out,". He went on to clarify, "That I can say hand on heart, without question.".
We can always speculate on how long it might take until we see a game, but in situations like this its even harder. Zelnick isn’t giving us any hints either. "We don’t talk about how long our development cycles are,".
He went on to acknowledge the situation further by saying, "We have had some ups and downs along the way. That is accurate. And we have had changes in studio leadership. That said, we have very big shoes to fill on BioShock because of the legacy of Ken Levine, the legacy of what has gone before, which has been so successful. And we need to make sure that this experience is true to the BioShock DNA on the one hand, and a massive step forward on the other hand. That’s always challenging. We think we’re up to the challenge, but it has not been seamless.".
In the interview he went on to talk about how their focus is on quality and not quantity, they want to really make sure they get it right. Staying true to the “DNA” of the game is what is important to them.
You can easily look at a lot of games in the industry that has been through development hell and say we might not ever see this game. But in that same breathe, games like Dead Island 2 came out on the other side of development hell with good reception. What do you think? Will Bioshock 4 ever come out? If it does, will it be any good? Let us know in the comments!
