BioShock is back. 2K Games has announced the formation of Cloud Chamber, a new studio spread across two locations, and their debut assignment is a brand new BioShock game that will be in development "for the next several years."
Cloud Chamber will have two homes, one in Novato, California outside of San Francisco, and the other in Montreal. The studio will be led by Kelly Gilmore who previously spent two decades at Firaxis working on series like XCOM and Sid Meier's Civilization and shipping over 40 games across her 22 year career. Gilmore will operate out of the Novato location and this marks the first 2K Games studio to be led by a woman. She said Cloud Chamber's goal is to "push the boundaries of what is possible in the video game medium."
"Our team believes in the beauty and strength of diversity, in both the makeup of the studio and the nature of its thinking," she continued. "We are a deeply experienced group of game makers, including many responsible for BioShock’s principal creation, advancement and longstanding notoriety, and honored to be part of the 2K family as stewards of this iconic franchise."
The Montreal location will managed by Ken Schachter, who most recently worked as General Manager for Zynga in Toronto. His role, according to 2K, will be as an "an ambassador for both the studio and 2K in establishing a significant Company presence in Montreal."
Details on the new BioShock sequel itself were extremely limited, so we've got nothing to go on but its name for now, but it will be interesting to see how new eyes look upon the sci-fi shooter series which has always displayed its political leanings front and center. With "several years" of development time ahead, it may be a while before we hear about BioShock again.
BioShock to date has meant three standalone games, with the original coming in 2007 from Ken Levine's Irrational Games (then 2K Boston). A sequel, BioShock 2, unrelated to Levine's team came in 2010 from 2K Marin. Irrational Games returned to the series for the much-anticipated follow-up BioShock Infinite in 2013. Levine has since closed Irrational Games and moved on to form Ghost Story Games, a new indie studio making a mysterious game yet to be revealed.
