The next game in the BioShock series, which is currently referred to as BioShock 4, is reportedly having some major problems in development, as Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports that it recently failed a check-in review with Take-Two and 2K leadership, which resulted in major changes being ordered to the game's narrative, and two of developer Cloud Chamber's creative leadership being removed from their roles into other areas of the company.
The report also reveals that a remake of the first BioShock game was in the works before it was "shelved" earlier this year, according to Bloomberg's sources.
Kelley Gilmore, studio head at Cloud Chamber, was removed from her role as studio head and moved into a position on the publishing side of things, as a result of BioShock 4 failing its recent review, and Hogarth de la Plante, creative director at Cloud Chamber, suffered the same fate, and is now in a publishing role.
2K reportedly told Cloud Chamber's staff that they need to be "more agile and efficient," which Schreier adds now has staff concerned that layoffs are around the corner.
In a statement sent to Bloomberg in response to questions sent in regarding this report, 2K Games said, "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." The same spokesperson also confirmed the role changes for Gilmore and de la Plante.
BioShock 4 has reportedly been in development in some form or another since 2015, or should we say at least since then, as Schreier adds that the game has been in development for "more than a decade," referring to his prior reporting that Certain Affinity had been working on the next BioShock game since at least 2015.
We only (officially) learned that BioShock 4 was coming in 2019, with Cloud Chamber announced as the studio helming the project. In 2023, there were claims that the game had been internally rebooted for a second time, after suffering a reboot in 2018. Last year, we saw Cloud Chamber looking to ramp up development with multiple job listings posted, and that was essentially the most recent sign of life we've seen from the studio on BioShock 4.
The lack of any concrete information on the game for more than a decade is as good a sign as any that it's struggling in development, because surely if it were anywhere near release, 2K and Take-Two would have already been shouting about it from rooftops. But today's report shows that Take-Two aren't convinced that BioShock 4 is where it needs to be yet.
Of course, there's a stark difference between what a great game looks like for bean-counting executives versus the developers actually working on it. There's more than a slight chance that this failure could be the result of Take-Two just not believing that the current path for BioShock 4 won't be the one that sells the most copies. That doesn't mean it isn't a great game in its current state.
Regardless, it's clear we'll have to continue waiting to see what happens with the next BioShock game. Hopefully, it'll be worth the wait.
