Codenamed ‘Parkside’
BioShockis one of 2K Games’ most important properties, but there hasn’t been much rumbling about where the series will go next. The most recent installment was 2013’sBioShock Infinite; a year after its release, leadBioShockstudioIrrational Games was more or less shut down. Since then, there have been some re-releases and remasters for current-generation consoles, but nothing substantial in the way of a new game.
That doesn’t meanBioShockis done. In a lengthy report on the state ofMafia IIIdeveloper Hangar 13,Kotakuhas uncovered the existence of a “top secret”BioShockproject — and it’s happening in Novato, California in the building next to Hangar 13.
Kotaku writes: “Next door, a small group of people were working on a project codenamedParkside, quietly recruiting from across the video game industry for a game so secret, they wouldn’t even tell their colleagues at Hangar 13 about it. Word got out, though, that it was in fact a new game in one of the most interesting shooter franchises of the past decade:BioShock.”
However, it wasn’t as easy as just bringing Hangar 13 employees over to work onBioShock. One person involved with it said “The issue is thatParkside‘s not ready for lots of people. They’re trying to be really smart about figuring out what the core thing is. They’re careful about not falling into the same problem every studio has, where they have too many people and nothing for them to do.” It seems like it was a source of tension within Hangar 13, everyone competing to get a chance to work onBioShock.
Kotaku’s piece is well worth a read. It provides the context forFebruary’s layoffs at Hangar 13, how the development team was perfectly aware of all ofMafia III‘s shortcomings, the realities of staffing a studio in San Francisco, and the prototypes that it has worked on over the past year. It’s all quite sobering. And the possibility of a newBioShockis about the only feel-good angle out of this whole saga — even if that doesn’t really have much to do with Hangar 13 at all.
