Take-Two has teased that a future instalment in the BioShock series may yet materialise, describing the critically-acclaimed IP as a ‘permanent franchise within the company.
Speaking to GameSpot, Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two, made it clear that the series, which is the brainchild of creator Ken Levine, remains very much an important IP to the publishing giant:
“The franchise is in the hands of 2K," said Zelnick. "They’ll make announcements in due time about any upcoming releases. But BioShock is unquestionably a permanent franchise for our company and one that we do believe in.”
Speaking of Levine, Zelnick teased that the Irrational Games boss is currently beavering away on something "highly creative and innovative," though wouldn’t go into any further details.
The BioShock series is seen as a spiritual successor to Levine’s System Shock franchise, and was first released on the Xbox 360 and PC back in August 2007. A PS3 port later emerged the next year with some extra content thrown into the mix, with a full-fledged sequel, BioShock 2 (originally named BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams), arriving in early 2010. The most recent instalment in the series, BioShock Infinite, was released for PS3, PC, and Xbox 360 in March 2013 and was supported by a two-part story expansion titled Burial at Sea.
In addition, rumors have started circulating that the franchise will make the jump to current-generation consoles as part of the BioShock Collection. Nothing official has been confirmed, however, and likewise it still remains unknown what the future of the series holds. However, given Zelnick’s comments, it seems that BioShock hasn’t been retired despite Irrational Games’ closure a few years ago, and we’ll get another game at some point.
Oh, and don’t hold out hope for the elusive BioShock PS Vita—the game is likely never going to happen.
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