New information about the development shakeup on BioShock 4 continues to trickle out, and a new report suggests that 80 people have been affected by layoffs 2K has set down for developer Cloud Chamber. The report additionally says the game will be delayed from an internally planned release in late 2026 or early 2027, suggesting that over a decade of development hell is going to stretch even longer.
The layoffs at Cloud Chamber were first reported yesterday alongside news that ex-Diablo boss Rod Fergusson would head up both the BioShock franchise and the studio itself, but 2K did not make clear how many people would be affected.
A new report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier suggests that 80 jobs are being eliminated, representing nearly one-third of the 250 employees who worked at Cloud Chamber before the cuts. "The game will also be delayed from a previously planned release in late 2026 or early 2027," the report adds.
The report also covers much of the game's development history, some of the details of which Schreier previously reported at Kotaku. Notably, the game's said to have entered development in 2014, shortly after the launch of BioShock infinite, at prolific FPS co-developer Certain Affinity. "Executives at 2K, eager to take more control of development, began negotiating a deal to purchase Certain Affinity," according to the new report.
Of course, that didn't happen, and by 2017 2K had instead established Cloud Chamber to work on the new BioShock game, apparently taking some ideas from Certain Affinity's version of the project. The report suggests Cloud Chamber faced internal struggles, with a difficult switch from Unreal Engine 4 to 5 and a team that expanded faster than the production pipeline could keep up, but an internal demo got "glowing feedback from 2K executives."
That, of course, all came before the big internal review that we learned of earlier this month, where 2K said "we have a good game, but we are committed to delivering a great one." How long it actually takes that "great" game from coming to market remains to be seen, but with 11 years of development hell already behind it, it seems there's a long road yet to travel.
GamesRadar+ has reached out to 2K for comment.
BioShock 4 has "had some ups and downs along the way," but Take-Two CEO promises "hand on heart, without question" that the immersive sim is "going to come out."
