Take-Two CEO ‘deeply disappointed’ by BioShock delay

Strauss Zelnick described himself as ‘deeply disappointed’ by the 13-year gap since the last mainline BioShock title. He blamed time and money spent pursuing creative directions that did not work and confirmed the new game remains in active development at Cloud Chamber.

Zelnick rejected the notion that the delay came as a surprise, saying a ‘surprise’ would imply a sudden shock and that he does not run the business that way. He said the team struggled to settle on the right creative approach and acknowledged Take-Two ‘in retrospect, wasted a lot of time and money chasing down some creative alleys that turned out to be dead ends.’

To accelerate work and refocus the project, Take-Two brought in industry producer Rod Fergusson. Fergusson previously worked on BioShock Infinite and led development on Blizzard’s Diablo franchise. At the time he joined, Zelnick said the project was considered ‘a good game’ and the company is ‘committed to delivering a great one.’

The BioShock franchise produced three mainline single-player games, with the most recent, BioShock Infinite, released in 2013. Cloud Chamber has the franchise assignment but has not shown public footage or announced a release window for the new entry.

Zelnick did not provide a timeline for when players will see the game. He said Take-Two is working closely with Cloud Chamber leadership to define the project’s direction and that he is ‘feeling a lot better’ about its current state.