The rumours were true: The next BioShock game is officially in the works from Cloud Chamber Studios, a newly established team at 2K Games made of up several developers involved in the making of the original BioShock and both of its sequels.
Details of what this next BioShock title will look like are scarce but, in a press release announcing the news, President of 2K David Ismailer promised the game would continue in the series' tradition of "powerful narrative and iconic, first-person shooter gameplay."
The press release also confirmed the untitled BioShock project will be in development for "the next several years", suggesting it's being developed with next-gen hardware in mind, given that both PS5 and Xbox Project Scarlett are out in Holiday of 2020, though platforms haven't yet been specified.
Cloud Chamber Studio is the same studio previously codenamed 2K Parkside, the existence of which was first reported on 18 months ago by Kotaku. The team is headed up by Kelley Gilmore, whose previous experience includes decades of work on the Sid Meier's Civilization and XCOM series at Firaxis Games, and is being touted as the "first woman in 2K history to lead a development studio."
The last chapter in the BioShock series was 2013's BioShock: Infinite, so the reveal of this next installment has been a long time coming. 2K provided no details on the game's setting, story, or place in the franchise's timeline, but a brief teaser trailer at either this week's Game Awards ceremony or State of Play livestream isn't out of the realm of possibility.
In the meantime, check out our interview with Gilmore on all things Cloud Chamber and BioShock, in which the studio head reveals that this new project has no affiliation with series creator Ken Levine, and explains how this BioShock might be able to utilize next-gen technology.
Check out the biggest new games of 2019 and beyond still on the way, or watch the video below for our latest episode of Dialogue Options.
