BioShock 4 reportedly stuck in development hell
There are worries that BioShock 4 has been raptured, as the much-anticipated fourquel might've sunk to the bottom of the ocean and be stuck in development hell. It's been a decade since we last had a BioShock game, and we've got a sinking feeling it could be much longer until we return.
First making a splash in 2007, 2K's underwater adventure introduced us to the dystopian world of Andrew Ryan and his nautical nightmare. BioShock 2 was more of the same in 2010, before we soared to the heights of Columbia for 2013's BioShock Infinite. We always expected a fourth game, but now, BioShock 4 is in doubt.
What's going on with BioShock 4?
Posting on Twitter, leaker Oops Leaks claims BioShock 4 has been delayed due to issues with management, worries over finances, and multiple reboots. Most recently, they say BioShock 4 was restarted in 2002, for a fourth time. Unless these can be resolved, Oops Leaks isn't confident BioShock 4 will escape development hell.
As for where things are up to, the account maintains that if 2K Games doesn't announce BioShock 4 this summer, there are "zero chances" it'll hit its proposed 2025 release date. There's a proposed name of BioShock Isolation, but that's never been confirmed by 2K or Cloud Chamber.
Series director Ken Levine claimed that the BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea expansion would be the last chapter in the franchise, although rumours of a mainline return have never gone away. BioShock 4 was formally announced in 2019, with the newly formed Cloud Chamber taking up production.
What do we know about BioShock 4?
Click to enlargeThe name of BioShock Isolation fits with those rumoured themes of a game set in the Antarctic, with whispers of an open-world game set in a new city called Borealis. Of course, that was before these many rumoured reboots hit the title.
Oops Leaks said much of the same about BioShock 4 last year, so it looks worryingly like things haven't changed. Elsewhere, Levine has moved onto Judas as a spiritual successor that channels its inner BioShock. It remains to be seen if it can challenge BioShock 4...if it ever releases.
At least BioShock is continuing in some form, as Netflix has confirmed the long-awaited BioShock movie is finally moving forward. Sadly, it seems that as one BioShock project breaks free from development hell, another is dragged to the briny deep by an anchor of issues.
