How Cloud Chamber may repeat the same mistake Irrational Games made

On December 9th 2019, 2K officially announced a new development studio under their publishing label. That studio was revealed to be called Cloud Chamber. They were set to task about pioneering the "next iteration" of the Bioshock franchise. Even now, it's still unknown whether or not this new Bioshock game will be officially called Bioshock 4. To this day, not much in known about what the studio is doing to the game other than what we can speculate from their job listings. Not to burst anyone's bubble but if anyone is familiar with Bioshock's development history across the trilogy, there are still some things to be worried about. Look no further than the infamous development road of Bioshock Infinite.

Infinite aspirations, finite goals.

What exactly went wrong with Bioshock Infinite's development? One word; ambition. Now, ambition sounds great, right? Well, in finite amounts sure but Irrational Games was simply too ambitious. Ken Levine served as a creative director and lead writer on the development of Bioshock Infinite. Although, his success can be attributed to the first Bioshock, he and his team would still suffered creative problems in the development of Bioshock Infinite.

According to a Game Informer article published January 3rd, 2022, New Report Details BioShock Creator’s New Game And The Rocky Development, Employee Burnout, And Numerous Content Cuts Surrounding It: "As noted by Bloomberg, Levine told AusGamers in a 2012 interview that he “probably cut two games worth of stuff” while developing BioShock Infinite. Then, a couple of years later, Levin said, “in almost every game I’ve worked on, you realize you’re running out of time, and then you make the game.”

Although I have no real-world experience in developing and managing companies, I'm plenty capable of recognizing patterns. The patterns are starting to match up in BioShock 4's proposed development and the development of Bioshock Infinite. A talented team of creatives are given the green light and a sequel with no public deadline or goal that is disclosed to the players. From an outsiders perspective, when Cloud Chamber's website talks about crafting unique stories and "...worlds that you'll want to experience", I can't help shake the feeling of emptiness this means to me. This is about as generic as you can get in terms of announcing what a companies' goals are. This has yet to prove them worthy of successfully creating a Bioshock 4 and we'll just have to wait and see. Even though it's just talk from them now, I'm still hopeful they are going to deliver.

BioShock has proven itself a successful IP and one that still stands the test of time. To this day, I find myself booting up the trilogy and finding new reasons to keep coming back to the world of Rapture. I wish Cloud Chamber studios the best of luck on their development journey and I can't wait to see where they take this franchise.

Sources:

2K Announces New Cloud Chamber Studio. (2019, December 9). Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https://2k.com/2k-announces-cloud-chamber-studio/

Cloud chamber. Cloud Chamber. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https://cloudchamberstudios.com/

LeBlanc, W. (2022, January 3). New report details BioShock creator's new game and the Rocky Development, employee burnout, and numerous content cuts surrounding it. Game Informer. Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https://www.gameinformer.com/2022/01/03/new-report-details-bioshock-creators-new-game-and-the-rocky-development-employee-burnout#:~:text=As%20noted%20by%20Bloomberg%2C%20Levine,then%20you%20make%20the%20game.%E2%80%9D