Take-Two CEO Is ‘Deeply Disappointed’ by BioShock 4’s Delays

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick is just as disappointed as the rest of us when it comes to the never-ending development of the next BioShock game.

For years, a team known as Cloud Chamber has been working on what is tentatively referred to as BioShock 4. While some games can take as many as four or five years to make, BioShock 4 has been in the works since at least 2019, when the project was announced, but it has likely been even longer than that. Cloud Chamber went through some restructuring last year to get BioShock 4 on track for release, but no one knows when it is expected to come out.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked by Game File’s Stephen Totilo if he was surprised by how long it has taken to make BioShock 4. He noted that it’s hard to be surprised when he sees the inner workings firsthand, but he is disappointed.

“Surprised? Never,” said Zelnick. “Think about what ‘surprise’ implies,” Zelnick said. “That’s like, one day, everything’s awesome, and the next day, I’m like, ‘Holy shit.’ And I don’t run the business that way. But I think if you’re saying ‘disappointed,’ yes. Deeply disappointed.”

Zelnick also addressed why it is taking so long and noted that BioShock 4 may have gone down some paths that didn’t pan out, resulting in setbacks.

“I think we, in retrospect, wasted a lot of time and money chasing down some creative alleys that turned out to be dead ends,” he said.

It was reported last year that BioShock 4’s biggest issues revolved around its narrative, and the team was taking measures to overhaul the story. 2K Games stated at the time that it believed that it had a good game, but was making efforts to deliver a great game that would meet fan expectations.

Last year, Zelnick assured fans that BioShock 4 would come out despite its troubled development. He doesn’t foresee it as a project they need to pull the plug on, and they brought in industry veteran Rod Fergusson to help get the game on track. Fergusson was previously brought in to help finish BioShock Infinite when it went through development issues before moving on to work on Gears of War 4 at The Coalition.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.