2K: BioShock Could Have Five Sequels

2K President Christoph Hartmann says BioShock could get as many as five sequels, but promised not to cash in on the franchise by "turning it into The Matrix."

A sequel to the hit FPS was a foregone conclusion, and the PlayStation 3 version of the game, released more than a year after it came out on the Xbox 360 and PC, actually contained the first-ever promotional trailer for the follow-up, entitled BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams. But in an interview with MCV, Hartmann said BioShock 2 might be just the beginning of a long series of games, and implied that 2K would handle the franchise differently - and better - than many other publishers.

"Some of the mega-franchises we talk about only lasted ten years because companies took five years to ship a game," he said. "Look at Duke Nukem. It's been a great franchise for 20 years, because it seems like it's been in development for 20 years."

"For Bioshock, because it's so story driven, the question obviously arises: how long can you do it without turning into The Matrix?" he continued. "The first Matrix was great, the second one was weird and the third one, you thought: 'Who [making this] is on crack and who isn't?' But then again, look at Star Wars. It's a fight between good and evil, just like BioShock. If we spin it the right way and get the right twist of innovation, we can make six parts of it, as Star Wars did."

The Star Wars movies may not be everyone's idea of the perfect franchise, but his point is clear enough and his commitment to the quality of the series is welcome. "We have to be careful not to cash in," he said. "I won't name the company, but there was a great racing game years ago. They brought it back year-on-year. If you look at the scores, it's hard to believe what they've done to it. It's upsetting, actually."

The appeal of more BioShock is obvious, but how the team at 2K Marin gets around the game's rather final ending will go a long way toward determining my interest in its future. I also thought BioShock was supposed to be about more than just a fight between good and evil, but maybe I'm just being pretentious. BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams is currently slated for release in fall 2009.

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I can't wait for the second one to come out. Bioshock is one of my favorite games of all time. I am a little curious though as to how they are going to deal with the finality of the ending. 6 games seems like a bit much though. Here's to hoping that the franchise doesn't turn shitty and that they create another good story.

Yes, I'm looking forward to Bioshock 2, possibley 3.

But 4, 5 and 6? Wait, what? Your seriously going to keep milking that cow till its a shivled lump of an nipple? (nice imagery I know.)

so they're treating it like a movie of good vs evil instead of a game where the player can make choices?

STOP REMINDING US OF DNF, If we forget about it, time will pass quicker.

Nothing says it has to be 6 FPS games. Also, I don't think using Star Wars as an example of six good movies is all that wise.

Yah, um... Episode I ft. Jar Jar Binks? Episode II where Anakin was a whiny girl? Episode III where Anakin was a whiny girl?

Can anyone name any series that has gone on for six installments and not fizzled out by four?

Khell_Sennet:
Nothing says it has to be 6 FPS games. Also, I don't think using Star Wars as an example of six good movies is all that wise.

heheh. But the younglings!

I'm as intrigued as everyone else when it comes to boishock sequels. Where exactly are they going to fit into the timeline with the first one? I'm expecting something that takes place during the civil war itself, and maybe something parallel to the ryan-fontaine curfuffle.

luckshot, it's interesting that you bring up all of the "choices" in that game. What even was there? Kill or don't kill the little sisters. And whichever you chose barely affected the game apart from a ridiculous final cinematic. Although I never played through as the "evil" side, I understand that the end of the game plays out just the same, which doesn't really make much sense. I'm also disappointed that all of the hype about plasmids sort of disappeared. "To mutate or not to mutate" was the original pitch, but in the game there is no negative effect for mutating the crap out of yourself. Maybe a system like that could be examined in a prequel though...

*edit*

The full interview isn't up until tomorrow according to the MCV post, I suppose it's worth hearing him out.

HobbesMkii:
Yah, um... Episode I ft. Jar Jar Binks? Episode II where Anakin was a whiny girl? Episode III where Anakin was a whiny girl?

Can anyone name any series that has gone on for six installments and not fizzled out by four?

Final Fantasy? But that's a weird case. Tekken 6? Metal Gear? Or are we talking movies? I'd agree there, although Harry Potter will get to 7 of course.

Please, no...one was great. Two? Awesome. Three? Um... Four? You can stop. Five? Getting old... Six? CUT IT OUT!

What a stupid thing to say....

Mmm. No. BS is good, but i thought the end was a fairly definite closing, except for the bad endings, if there is a sequel, it's probably going to be some POS cop out like, O WAIT. THERE BE ANOTHER RAPTURE EXCEPT IT'S LIKE, SHAPED LIKE A KOK LOLOLOLOL NEVER GONNA- No.

Actually, that was a bit harsh, that's probably what BioShock 4 would be.

Oyster^^:

luckshot, it's interesting that you bring up all of the "choices" in that game. What even was there? Kill or don't kill the little sisters. And whichever you chose barely affected the game apart from a ridiculous final cinematic. Although I never played through as the "evil" side, I understand that the end of the game plays out just the same, which doesn't really make much sense.

Umm...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=f3nBbo-uyZo&feature=related

But yeah, both endings are pretty stupid and tagged on. It was one of the few things I found bad about the game.

Chilko:
Mmm. No. BS is good, but i thought the end was a fairly definite closing, except for the bad endings, if there is a sequel, it's probably going to be some POS cop out like, O WAIT. THERE BE ANOTHER RAPTURE EXCEPT IT'S LIKE, SHAPED LIKE A KOK LOLOLOLOL NEVER GONNA- No.

Actually, that was a bit harsh, that's probably what BioShock 4 would be.

THAT SOUNDS AWESOME!!! Although the sales probably won't go too well.

Balls to a sequel! I want a prequel, free roaming Rapture FTW!

Meh. I don't even like BioShock, but maybe #2 will change my mind... or 3 or 4 or 5.

From what I understand of the story of BioShock isn't it going to be a pain to draw it out to more then 3 games? Sounds shaky at best to me (story wise).

I haven't played much of Bioshock, but it looks like a very fun game and I'm eager to try it, and I'm certain that it can handle at least one sequel before turning sour, probably more. I'm interested to see how this goes.

End it at 3, because there's only so much that can be original after six games, and in case Mr. Hartmann has his head up his bum:
Half the Star Wars Were Crap!!

excellent. so we're gonna get three good games. then theyll wait 20years before 'remastering' the origionals n releasing 3 'prequels' (n a CGI spinoff...which I suppose will be like making it into an rts or 3rd person action-puzzler in game terms) that s@*t all over the franchise as was. I cant wait.

Well, yeah, you could do spin-offs all over the place (without being actual sequals). We could have a Big Daddy game on the Wii (a la Manhunt), some Nazi torture games on the DS (yaaaaay stylus!), a PSP game that nobody will play (unless the stole it from teh internets), and a prequel and a sequel on some next-gen consoles (which will work fine on your X-box [until it asplodes] or will look beautiful [but suffer jaggies] on your PS3).

For sequel ideas, I figured they would just base things on another Rapture. Or, possibly some other facilities. I mean, they got the main character out of there easily enough, and God knows how many splicers could've snuck out. Since we're talking 1950's genetic-engineering tech, there's no telling what kind of mutated crap could've been set loose when your character decided to break everything with rocket launchers and super-powers. The best thing the writers ever did was make sure that you never had a good look at how complete Rapture's destruction was.

so what they're saying is that Bioshock prequels are gonna blow and many will consider them as not existing??...if we keep up the star wars comparison that is...

Malygris:
"Some of the mega-franchises we talk about only lasted ten years because companies took five years to ship a game," he said. "Look at Duke Nukem. It's been a great franchise for 20 years, because it seems like it's been in development for 20 years."

I think 2K is stream-lining the production and development process by just creating franchises.

I'm assuming that their applying the GTA spin-off/ sequel model to Bioshock. Get the formula right and it will become another sure-fire bread-winner.

what I wanna know is whens the movie coming out? I heard it was supposed to be out at the same time part 2 was gonna be out.

If you want to make Bioscjock 2 good i have an idea have someone raise Rapture it would complty make the area new and it would give it a new story

It turns out that one of the Big Daddies is your father.

Nooooooooooo! That's impossible!

There are so many ways they can take the series though, I wonder what they'll choose. They could make two different games, one where the good choice is cannon and the other where the evil choice is cannon. I'd like to see how that works out.

Malygris:
2K: BioShock Could Have Five Sequels

2K President Christoph Hartmann says BioShock could get as many as five sequels, but promised not to cash in on the franchise by "turning it into The Matrix."

I can only see this as a good thing. The Bioshock 'world' is appreciated by so many people it would be a shame for it not to be explored. I hope for it to span many genres for the best use of the material. I could see 6 FPS games getting pretty old.

Spot on with The Matrix by the way.
1 - amazing
2 - was good until
3 - came out and ruined everything.
Animatrix - great
Enter the Matrix - good game (i've heard)

Three and half isn't bad I guess.

I could go for three and half good Bioshock (Rapture) games.

I think people are overlooking the fact that Ken Levine's team is off doing something else, so the Bioshock sequels are all being handled by a completely different group of folks. Considering Levine used his Lit. degree to its full extent, creating a story that not only speaks of various parts of humanity but completely counters the concept of objectivism, well, I have high doubts that whoever is taking over can write something so literary and less Hollywood.

Bioshock is such an isolated story. It's like the Watchmen game trying to be a prequel, not to mention a beat-em-up. You take what is essentially a pretty isolated, closed-in concept and try to force a pre/sequel to it.

It just isn't going to work. What you'll get is a half-assed Hollywoodification of what was a great, unique idea that is meant to stand on its own.

In other words, simply having a sequel is going to tear away at the meanings behind Bioshock, let alone turning it into a franchise.

All I am saying is, that cows nipples are going to be so dried up the games are gonna have to be sucky.

I think the people who made Bioshock and managed to fight off EA are smart enough to not to fall into the Sequelitis trap.

Maybe the sequel will be one where you play an average dude who has to go up against the main character from the first game, who got the bad ending and has become the villain of the game, a la Exmortis 2. That's just one thing they could try.

Eh, didnt care enough about Bioshock the first time round to buy it so I cant really see another 5 attempts working on me.