It’s been six years since 2K Games confirmed that BioShock 4 was in development at newly formed studio Cloud Chamber, and despite all that time passed it sounds like we’ve got a lot of waiting left. A new Bloomberg report says the in-progress game recently failed a review by 2K executives, leading to the removal of studio head Kelley Gilmore and shift of creative director Hogarth de la Plante to a publishing role, as well as a planned overhaul of parts of the game itself.
2K Games confirmed the change in leadership at Cloud Chamber, saying it is “fully committed to ensuring we deliver a BioShock game that exceeds the lofty expectations of our fans.”
“We are working hard to set BioShock up for the best possible future,” 2K told Bloomberg. “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.”
Despite that commitment, sources told the site that some Cloud Chamber employees are worried about layoffs: Workers were reportedly told during a recent all-hands meeting that the studio needs to be more agile, and we all know what that means.
BioShock 4’s narrative was cited by the sources as a particular area of concern, and that’s a bigger deal for BioShock than for most other shooters: BioShock’s most memorable moment involves beating a man to death with a golf club because he really wanted to make a point about free will, and while BioShock Infinite’s thematic mess has not aged especially well, at least an attempt was made. There’s an expectation that BioShock 4 will bring similar (relatively) weight ponderances to the table.
Of course, Cloud Chamber has to do so without Ken Levine, the writer and creative director of BioShock and BioShock Infinite: He’s currently working on Judas, a very BioShock-looking shooter that’s been in development almost as long as BioShock 4. It doesn’t have a release date yet either.
BioShock 4’s ongoing struggles aren’t the only bad news for long-suffering fans of the series: The Bloomberg report also says 2K Games had a remake of the original BioShock in development, but cancelled it earlier this year. A reason for the cancellation wasn’t provided.