A recent review on the development of BioShock 4 has resulted in a restructuring of its development team as its publisher works towards a revamp. It’s been around six years since 2K Games announced that its then-new studio, Cloud Chamber, would be in charge of handling the fourth game. It’s been twice as long since the last entry, BioShock Infinite was released, and since then, there’s been a hodgepodge of random bits of information and rumors regarding the current game’s development. Posts regarding the following timeline can be found here.
Rumor and Leaks Timeline
- 2019 – Take-Two officially announces development of BioShock 4 following years of rumors and speculation
- 2020 – Rumor of it using Unreal Engine 4 in 2020, which would be somewhat out-of-date now, given the continuing advances made with UE5.
- 2020 – Job listings for Cloud Chamber hint at the game being of an open-world design with RPG mechanics
- 2021 – Rumor that it could be a potential time-limited PlayStation, similar to other Sony exclusive PC releases.
- 2021 – Setting and time period revealed, and the game is rumored to feature two cities this time around
- 2022 – Cloud Chamber reportedly laid off around 40 of its staff.
- 2024 – Cloud Chamber said to be “recruiting like mad” for the game, as a screenshot also gets leaked
As you can see, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride when it comes to the development of BioShock 4, and that ride doesn’t seem to be coming to an end anytime soon, except for some of its staff, anyway. According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, things did not go well after a recent review of the game’s current progress, and its narrative was in need of improvement; immediately thereafter, Cloud Chamber studio head Kelley Gilmore was let go. In addition, creative director Hogarth de la Plante was reappointed to another position at 2K in its publishing division. A spokesperson responded to Bloomberg with the following:
“We are working hard to set BioShock up for the best possible future, Right now, we have a good game, but we are committed to delivering a great one. We are working closely with leadership at the studio to define this path.”
-2K Games
Staff at Cloud Chamber were told that the company needs to be “more agile and efficient,” leading some to believe that more layoffs could be forthcoming. It has not yet been revealed how much has been spent on the development of BioShock 4, but given how long it’s been baking, and what appears to be multiple restarts in staffing along with this new revamping strategy, that number could be quite high. 2K has yet to give a potential release date for the game, but this latest news would hint that it won’t be in 2025 and perhaps not in 2026 either. Maybe, at this point, 2K Games is hoping to cash in on BioShock’s 20th anniversary in 2027. Meanwhile, another rumor had been circulating that a remake of the original game was in the works, but it has reportedly now been canceled.