The hits keep coming for Bioshock 4. Cloud Chamber, the development team behind the next Bioshock game, is being hit by layoffs. Additionally, Rod Fergusson, who recently left Blizzard as the head of the Diablo series, will be the new head of the Bioshock franchise. Following a recent report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, it was known that 2K was looking for someone different to head up the series, with an internal memo pointing to the foundation of the upcoming game being good, but “core aspects” (or the narrative, as was reported) not being in a good spot.
Work on the next BioShock game has been underway for several years. While we’re excited about the foundational gameplay elements of the project, we’ve made the decision with studio leadership to rework certain aspects that are core to a BioShock game, and in doing so are reducing the size of the development team to focus on this work and give the game more time in development.
Is Rod Fergusson a Good Choice to Head Bioshock?
While some people will know Rod Fergusson best for his recent work with Diablo IV and the time he spent working on Gears of War, he does have experience with the Bioshock series. He was brought on to assist Ken Levine in pushing Bioshock Infinite to the finish line after that game had hit development strife. With Bioshock 4 seemingly being in the same place, he’s returning to do the same thing again, but his role will also play into a future Netflix adaptation of the series. The memo states that he will be working with Netflix for the upcoming film for the series, but, as usual, there seems to be no release in sight for that partnership at this moment. A Bioshock movie has been tinkered away for more than a decade at this point, with the Netflix partnership announced in 2022 and no real updates given since then.
Hopefully, Rod Fergusson can continue his known role as a “closer” in the game development space and help the new Bioshock game and movie start making progress towards one day actually coming out. This series is plagued with delays and development issues, but somehow, it seems to have worked out well so far with three excellent games being available. Speaking speculatively, it will probably be a few more years before we see the fruits of these labors.
