BioShock Creator Recalled How the Game Nearly Got Canceled
"We can't make those games because they don't sell."
As gaming industry media, we love covering the stories behind the scenes of games. These insights offer a broader perspective beyond the game itself, revealing less-known aspects to our readers and players. This time, we're focusing on how the highly-acclaimed first-person shooter BioShock franchise almost got canceled. In this instance, game media played a crucial role and, to some extent, “saved” the franchise.
In an interview with Edge Magazine via Games Radar+, BioShock creator Ken Levine shared the troubles the franchise faced before it got published — it’s like the franchise finally survived in a war with financial concerns and anticipated low sales.
BioShock
Levine remembers that the original developers joined Irrational Games with their love for System Shock 2. They hoped to craft a similar game, but Levine initially declined the idea, telling them “we can't make those games because they don't sell.” But in the end, they managed to persuade him.
After initial rejections from publishers who expected the game to be as "unprofitable" as System Shock, the team at Irrational Games, cleverly, decided to pitch BioShock to journalists during a retrospective on System Shock 2. "The next day, people saw the article, and we started getting phone calls," Levin says. "I think it created a sense of demand in the publisher."
BioShock
The next part of the tale is widely known: Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar Games and 2K, acquired the publishing rights for the game. They provided a "modest budget" and later bought Irrational Games, investing more in BioShock.
As of November 2022, the series had sold over 41 million copies, making it one of the highest-selling video game franchises of all time. The developer is currently "ramping up" work on the 4th title in the franchise and is hiring an additional 30 staff members to expedite development.
You can check out the original report from Games Radar+ here and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
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