- BioShock 4’s development cycle has deeply disappointed Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.
- The company wasted a lot of time and money going through creative avenues that didn’t pan out.
- However, Zelnick thinks this is the nature of the industry, and he feels much better about the sequel now.
BioShock fans have been waiting for a new mainline entry in the franchise for over a decade now. However, all signs point to the wait being even longer as developer Cloud Chamber was hit with layoffs last year.
Announced in 2019, BioShock 4 is reportedly not launching before 2027, and the game’s decade-long production cycle has shocked publisher 2K. Even the CEO of Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, has been left stunned and is disappointed that the sequel hasn’t been delivered to fans by now.
Why it matters: Even though developers wasted a lot of time trying to find the right direction for BioShock 4, at least fans will get the best version of the game now.

While talking to Game File, Strauss Zelnick stated he is deeply disappointed that a new BioShock title still hasn’t launched over a decade after the last mainline entry. The CEO said he wasn’t surprised by the sequel’s lengthy development and offered an explanation as to why it’s taking so long.
I think if you’re saying ‘disappointed,’ yes. Deeply disappointed. I think we, in retrospect, wasted a lot of time and money chasing down some creative alleys that turned out to be dead ends.
Zelnick revealed that the team spent a lot of unnecessary time pursuing ideas that led nowhere, as it was hard to figure out a creative direction for BioShock 4. As a result, Take-Two wasted a ton of money on realising creativity that wasn’t very fruitful.
However, despite the haphazard nature of BioShock 4’s development, the CEO thinks the sequel’s production cycle is reflective of the nature of entertainment. According to Zelnick, game development is handled by big teams, and it’s hard to tell what creative direction will work until everything is put together.

For sure, it’s a costly process, but that’s how the industry works, and the CEO assured fans that he feels much better about BioShock 4 now that Gears of War and Diablo lead Rod Ferguson is heading the franchise.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devoutly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.


