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Home Bioshock updates

Surfer Girl promises BioShock 2: New team to work on it, people sick of Levine

10:10 AM on 11.29.2007, Jim Sterling 29 comments

Surfer Girl promises BioShock 2: New team to work on it, people sick of Levine photo
     Bioshock

Surfer Girl, the mysterious prophet who has become the gamer's Oracle of choice, today shares with us gossip from 2K Boston concerning the development of BioShock 2. After pointing to a Gamasutra job posting that stated the BioShock creators were setting up a new studio in the Bay area, the Surfing woman of mystery delved deeper into the story behind this relocation:

2K Boston is still recovering - a good chunk of the BioShock team did not want to work with Ken ever again, and 2K definitely understood the sentiment and let them set up a new studio so that they can make Bioshock 2, leaving Ken with Project X. A good chunk of the other senior 2K Boston people who were sick of Ken but didn't move to San Francisco ended up scattering to other AAA developers instead. In Quincy, they're essentially rebuilding a team from almost scratch again.

As ever, this is all conjecture until something rock-solid is seen, but since everything Surfer Girl says seems to cause a stir, it's worth at least taking on board. If it's true, Ken Levine is not a popular man and clearly didn't win over any friends during the development of BioShock. Also, what would a new team bring to a franchise that Ken seemed to have his hands all over?


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BlueJester's Avatar
BlueJester at 11/29/2007 10:21
I can imagine ken was very adamant about the things he wanted in the game. I can also imagine it started to piss some of his team members off after awhile. If this is true all I can say to the 2k developers is: suck it up! Without Ken there is no bioshock!
Ace Crikey's Avatar
Ace Crikey at 11/29/2007 10:33
Should be interesting to see where this goes without Ken at the helm.
Origim's Avatar
Origim at 11/29/2007 10:43
If Levine had a major hand in what became Bioshock then I'm not liking the sequels chances. However it's all speculation and this point so I'll wait and see what develops.
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 11/29/2007 10:51
Any time you've got a game driven by an auteur's concept, you're going to have to realize to just go along with what he wants, because he knows where he's going with it. I've heard similar things about Hideo Kojima.

Anyways, I still have no idea why Surfer Girl has any credibility so far.
xper's Avatar
xper at 11/29/2007 10:53
its a good thing levine left bioshock where it should be. they're now in that beautiful period in every development cycle to make a sequel to a fantastic first game before the hype blows off completely and no one remembers how good bioshock was.

god of war was great. god of war 2 was fantastic. different man in charge. i think this goes for the majority of franchises. ken had a vision, he saw it through (pissed a lot of people off by his leadership and passion, apparently) and if he was to be forced by some publisher to just squeeze bioshock out of its last breath just for the sake of it, bioshock 2 would be a disappointment before it was already released.

having a different team working on a sequel to bioshock is the only logical solution this close to the first game's release. if it wasn't to be made right now, and ken decides 10 years from now that he wants to implement some of his ideas in a sequel, that would be interesting. the idea of a bioshock sequel is absurd as it is. they should leave rapture alone for a looong time.

ken is better off doing "project-x". bioshock is better off without him.
KamikazeTutor's Avatar
KamikazeTutor at 11/29/2007 10:58
Poor guy, first EA won't give up on the System Shock name, leaving Ken without his first baby.
Now this?
KamikazeTutor's Avatar
KamikazeTutor at 11/29/2007 11:01
Oh but now that I think of it, Ken was pissed about that two endings stuff on BioShock... Yeah, I guess he might gotten overprotective of his stuff after losing System Shock.
ShadowXOR's Avatar
ShadowXOR at 11/29/2007 11:07
Kamikaze: Do you have a link to the interview where Ken is pissed about the two endings?

As for me, I was disappointed by Bioshock, not because it wasn't a good game, but because it resembled Half-Life more than System Shock 2. Now I loved Half-Life, but that isn't what I wanted out of Bioshock. Ken has always seemed cool to me but he is definitely passionate.
Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 11/29/2007 11:08
Um. Bioshock 2 might be to Bioshock what Turok 2 was to Turok? If so, it's complete gold.
king3vbo's Avatar
king3vbo at 11/29/2007 11:15
NOOO DO NOT WANT! Leave Bioshock where it is god damnit
Usedtabe's Avatar
Usedtabe at 11/29/2007 11:19
@ShadowXOR: I don't have the lonk, but I can confirm reading an interview on Kotaku where Levine said he was not happy with the 2 endings.
Namelessted's Avatar
Namelessted at 11/29/2007 11:30
as long as the team that makes Bioshock 2 consists mostly of members of the original team I am all for it.

@xper, i am sorry but you are wrong about God of War. David Jaffe was the creative director for both God of War and God or War II. However, he did not have anything to do with Chains of Olympus on PSP or Betrayal on cell phones.
Semantic Poetry's Avatar
Semantic Poetry at 11/29/2007 11:34
I agree with king3vbo, Bioshock is done as a franchise. Where could they possibly take it? It just feels like they're trying to spin gold out of straw.
Fading Star's Avatar
Fading Star at 11/29/2007 12:07
I would like to see where they take this. Please don't sucketh!
UltraDSA's Avatar
UltraDSA at 11/29/2007 12:08
Teh Surfer gurl said....snicka snika!
xper's Avatar
xper at 11/29/2007 12:10
@namelessted, oh sorry. gotta check my facts. but what was corey's job on gow2? and who had his job on the first one? i thought it was different guys in charge

yeah i wanna see another game as awesome as bioshock from the people who made that game great, but i don't think bioshock2 is the answer. this is all about money
skullivan's Avatar
skullivan at 11/29/2007 12:37
I'm surprised to hear that Levine is so hated. He always seemed really cool in interviews and took criticism well, unlike say, Denis Dyack or Dave Jaffe.

@xper, you're facts are right. Jaffe was NOT the director of GOWII. He undoubtedly had input, but Cory Barlog was the director.

Namelessted: before you contradict people, you should really check your facts :p If you look at Jaffe's blog (http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/) he doesn't even list GOWII as a title he worked on.
xper's Avatar
xper at 11/29/2007 13:00
lol i knew it :P thanks skullivan

it was some time ago though and i forget things, so i take stuff like that for granted. people posting on the internets should check their facts. have you checked yours? pass "go" to collect $200
Fugue's Avatar
Fugue at 11/29/2007 13:16
@Necros

I think it's because she says things that people want to hear.
Lobo2k7's Avatar
Lobo2k7 at 11/29/2007 13:26
Irrational has a team of very talented developers, designers, and artists. One man being responsible for such a big game is overstating things quite a bit. The vision was shared, clearly, among the entire team. I bet the sequel will be just fine.
Sharpless's Avatar
Sharpless at 11/29/2007 14:18
Anyone who doubts Surfer Girl, just read her blog. In its entirety. She definitely isn't full of shit, at least.
Eschatos's Avatar
Eschatos at 11/29/2007 14:26
Atlas is Ken!
PetiePal's Avatar
PetiePal at 12/01/2007 17:34
WELL there went the flawless history of a great game lol.

Just leave well enough alone you greedy bastards.
SpykeZ's Avatar
SpykeZ at 12/03/2007 23:08
I only joined just to say my part to that piece of shit Ken. Irrational Games was one of the best PC developers we ever had. Swat 4 and Freedom Force were just a couple of the best. Bioshock was supposed to be an awesome game and I had followed it like no other. Ken and irrational sold out and let 2K's stupid asses buy them. Then 2K being the ex awesome publisher destroyed everything irrational had invisioned and Ken talked out of his ass so much it was sickening.

Ken had promised and even said on live tv there would be a modkit. That would have saved this game from it's horror. After they were bought 2K had the final word and announced against what Ken had said that there will be no modkit, which is now why this game is nothing more than a fart in the wind.

Ken had talked the game up like it was the best thing in the world. The world acts like it's supposed to? Ya right. Couldn't freeze water, lighting the ground on fire only benefited when they themselves had put gasoline or something on the ground to give it away as "Oh hey, you can set a trap here". Instead of being able to do it yourself.

Ken claimed it was half an RPG but there wasn't anything RPG about it, you could use any plasmid and any mod or anything right to boot and you were given enough slots to use just about all of them at the same time not to mention they gave you enough gun mod stations to level every gun in the game but maybe 2 or 3 mods giving the game less replay value than Mario 2.

Multiple endings my ass. They were basically the same thing with maybe a couple things changed. They ending wasn't even creative, it was dumber than George Bush. You underground in this awesome world, everything creative and well thought out, to get to this monster who looked like he set himself on fire? You can tell they ran out of ideas and just stiched that on.

Oh look I can be a big daddy. Too bad everyone knows your still you. In game a splicer was cautious to take on a big daddy. Nope, not you, every splicer in teh building comes running after you. I got to change my voice but some reason I had no gloves to cover my human hands, and im still using the guns from before? Where the hell is my super strength, rivot gun and huge ass drill.

Even worse they multiplatformed it. While I may be a PC gamer I have absolutely nothing against consoles except for their limitations. Make a PC games only you can have it be in depth and lots of options. Console's having limited memory and control (only gamepad) they have to dumb down the UI. Ken promised us we'd have our awesome UI. We didn't have crap. IT was still horrible. How exactly is playing pipe dream hacking? They didn't even get creative with it, it was the same thing through out the whole entire game. WAsn't even hard.

All in all. Ken is a piece of crap and so is 2K for turning into corporate monkey assholes.
GideonPWNsMasterChef's Avatar
GideonPWNsMasterChef at 12/03/2007 23:54
Aw Darn no system shock2 to copy in every way shape and form?
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