Buckle up, Rapture fans, because Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick just went full candid mode about the long-suffering new BioShock project. According to Video Games Chronicle, Zelnick admitted he is "deeply disappointed" by how long the next BioShock entry has taken to materialize, stating that "in retrospect, we wasted a lot of time and money." Ouch. That's about as corporate-speak-free as it gets from a guy in a suit.
For context, the last BioShock game - BioShock Infinite - launched back in 2013, which means we've been waiting longer for a new BioShock than some of our readers have been alive. The project has been passed around like a hot potato, with 2K's internal studio Cloud Chamber taking the reins after original developer Irrational Games shut down. Over a decade of respawn timers and still no release date in sight.
Now here's the plot twist that keeps this story from being a total game-over screen: Zelnick also told Video Games Chronicle that he is "feeling a lot better" about the BioShock project in its current state. So we've apparently survived the dark souls phase of development and might actually be heading toward the endgame. Maybe.
This kind of executive-level honesty is rarer than a legendary drop in a badly tuned loot game. Most publisher bosses would rather smash through a brick wall than admit on the record that their flagship franchise development has been a dumpster fire. Zelnick essentially just filed a bug report on his own company and published it.
The BioShock franchise is one of gaming's most critically beloved IPs - a series known for its gorgeous dystopian world-building, mind-bending narratives, and the philosophical gut-punches that made players question free will while also shooting bees at people. The pressure to deliver something worthy of that legacy is, to put it mildly, absolutely enormous.
Whether Zelnick's newfound optimism translates into an actual announcement anytime soon remains to be seen. But at least someone at the top is holding the L and promising to do better - and in this industry, that's practically a speedrun world record for accountability.
