According to new leaks, Bioshock 4, dubbed Bioshock Isolation, is stuck in development hell and facing a lot of issues. The upcoming installment of the popular action role-playing game has been running into problems over and over, despite changes in leadership in the developer studio. The leaker predicts that the game won’t be announced this year and
“… has zero chances being released at FY2023, as initially planned.”
According to Oops leaks on Twitter, the Bioshock 4 development has run into several issues, including difficulties faced by narrative team, lack of organized work structure that resulted in frequent changes in development leadership, high staff overturn, and subsequent loss of experienced employees to work on the project.
The new Bioshock is in development hell.
Despite a complete change in development leadership, the Bioshock series is still haunted by the curse of problematic development. No game details will be described here, and this is likely to be my final report on the next Bioshock. pic.twitter.com/5oppXBsbns
— Oops Leaks (@oopsleaks) May 18, 2023
The leaker stated that the Bioshock 4 project was rebooted for the fourth time in 2022, following various reboots in the development process in 2017, 2019, and 2022. According to them, while the studio is still confident that they’ll be able to ship the new title in 2025, looking at the amount of job openings they have posted and the number of highly experience staff members that have left the process, this proclamation seems shaky.
The leaker blames this delay largely on disorganized work structure within the development studios. They admit that the development of Bioshock 4 was highly disturbed, owing to pandemic as well as Quebec’s bill 96. However, the leaker stressed on the fact that the studio has hired many less-than qualified employees that showcase no visible experience.
They also discuss various problems faced by narrative team of Bioshock 4, claiming that they have been:
“unable to write a script worthy of a renowned franchise”
Oops Leaks predicts that this is the key reason behind so many reboots required.
These updates have created unhappiness amongst fans of the popular ARPG series who were desperately looking forward for Bioshock 4. Some are blaming the current state of development on the absence of Ken Levine, the lead writer for the series’ three major installments, Bioshock (2007), Bioshock Infinite (2013), and Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea (2013), while others are mourning the loss of the much-awaited next installment.
Such a shame it’s having so many difficulties Bioshock by far is my favorite series of all time and I’m terrible at being patient 🤣
— Slayer (@XsSlayeR3) May 18, 2023
