It’s been a while since we heard about the new Bioshock title. Announced back in 2019, 2K Games revealed that the new entry in the fabled franchise would be developed by Cloud Chamber, brand new studio. The studio recently put up a number of job listings, 17 of them to be exact, with one of them standing out. Initially spotted by PCGamesN, and then tweeted by Video Games Chronicles, the Senior Writer position has an interesting description specifically stating the Bioshock series. The line states “We’re hoping to find someone who can weave impactful, character-driven stories in an open world setting” which suggests that the new title would take place in an open world.
While all of the previous entries in the Bioshock series have had some semblance of an open world, the titles’ objective structures were very much linear, with a definite beginning and an end to each of them. If this new tidbit of information proves to be true, it would be the first entry in the franchise to incorporate the “sandbox” style that other major titles have used such as Grand Theft Auto, The Witcher, Mass Effect, and The Elder Scrolls.
One of the other listings that caught our eye was the Senior World Designer, which states that the developer would need to “enhance the Narrative of the world, and make the game world feel alive, encouraging players to stay and explore.” Another huge indication is the third listing, the AI Programmer, which says that the developer would need to “collaborate with Design to create a vision for a meaningful AI urban crowd system” as well as “create intuitive Design-facing tools for authoring/scripting crowd behavior.”
All of the open-world game signs are there, but both 2K Games and Cloud Chamber have yet to comment on this, and most likely won’t until they’re ready to show us some time. In addition, when 2K Games announced the creation of the new Bioshock title, they also mentioned that it would be in development “for the next several years.” The fact that Cloud Chamber has 17 job listings only support this, and it will probably be a long time before we see anything concrete for the new Bioshock game.