Bioshock - Sequel a Prequel?

According to a rumour at Next Gen, 2K Marin is working on a Bioshock prequel:

According to internet murmurings, a BioShock follow-up is currently in pre-production and set for a 2009 release, backing up Take-Two’s previous comments that the title could develop into a franchise that sees a new release every two years.

Graphic design and plot are reportedly 2K’s primary focuses at the moment, and the story will likely be set before the events that took place in the original game, telling of how Rapture, a 1940s underwater utopian society, fell prey to greed and vice.

More information.

I think that time in Rapture would be a great setting for an rpg.

i agree, and have hoped that since finishing bioshock the first time. your character could have serious impacts on the 'factions' and its highly possible. a shooter would seem to make less sense as there would hopefully be living npcs. i mean they could even make it like the swat games where you were a member of the 'rapture police' and non-lethal methods could play a key role in quelling unrest, and trully protecting the citizens of rapture, rather than disposing of the broken remnants(men and women) of the fallen city.

do i think this will happen? probably not but i can be hopeful. also an rpg bioshock would be much more likely if they simultaneously were working on/releasing another bioshock shooter to quell the masses.

It maybe possible 2K Marin is the team that split off from KLevine, so maybe that was what all the fuss was about, KLevine wanted a shooter and 2K Marin wanted a RPG. Well we can hope anyway.

A Bioshock RPG would be vastly less successful than a shooter/RPG hybrid. Sad, maybe, but true. I guess it's a difficult question nowadays whether to go for a big project and choose a direction that will bring in significantly less money. I mean, would you, as someone in charge of a big team? It's just irresponsible.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
A Bioshock RPG would be vastly less successful than a shooter/RPG hybrid.

I'd be fine with a shooter/RPG hybrid. From what I've heard though, Bioshock was only a shooter… which means shooters are more successful than shooter/RPG hybrids?

That reminds me, got to put Bioshock on my "games I wanted to play but couldn't" list.

It was only theoretical, besides, T2's decision to make a Bioshock game every 2 years means that they will certainly be shooters, with less role-playing elements than the GTA series.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
A Bioshock RPG would be vastly less successful than a shooter/RPG hybrid.

Why?

There are approximately 1,000,000 pure shooters released every year. I don't know any shooter fans but presumably they don't buy each and every one, so a quality RPG would have significantly less competition, since the shooter market is saturated.

Look at The Witcher. That's an RPG isn't it? It seems like publishers aren't the only ones to constantly underrate the RPG market. So far it's purely a self-fulfilling prophecy. When the year of 10 quality RPGs comes, then we'll see what the market will support.

But CD Projeckt Red isn't the norm in gaming companies and on the whole RPGs just don't sell as well as "pure shooters." Sure there may be 1,000,000 shooters released every year but Bioshock was a shooter and for the publisher or devs to go to RPG for the next one would be unheard of, let alone a huge risk. They would risk losing their fanbase which include rpg and shooter fans, I would guess. Sure the rpg fans would be pleased as punch but shooter fans would scream bloody murder.

Bioshock has sold about as many copies as Baldur's Gate with 360 sales included. Which is less than Oblivion sold so it's quite possible for rpgs to outsell shooters. I'm pretty sure every Final Fantasy game would outsell Bioshock. Baldur's Gate is still selling today as well. So there is plenty of room for profit making rpgs. UT and Crysis haven't sold so well so just making shooters is no guarantee of success.

Good point but breaking away from a shooter to a RPG would definatly hit their sales and make some very grumpy fans.

Shooter fans have plenty of other choices to go to that also included on-line play. I think they will go the GTA route though with it being fairly similar to the first. I just thought that the underwater city would be a great setting for an rpg. It wasn't really about sales.

I totally agree with you that I would love to play that game I'm just cynical when it comes to publishers going the RPG way, even though it would make for an amazing game.

Just about any talk about sales is worthless without a consideration for the massive marketing budgets that go into some games. I read in Forbes that Microsoft spent $20 Million hyping and marketing Lost Planet as part of an exclusivity deal. $20 Million, on just marketing. That's astronomical, especially when you consider that Lost Planet is not even close to being one of the most hyped games in recent memory. Can anyone here imagine what Assassin's Creed's budget must have been?

Each of the Baldurs Gate games and Neverwinter Nights broke the 2 Million sales mark without a cent of television or movie theater advertising (at least not in the US), which is incredibly expensive. Bioshock sold very well, but it also had an epic, massive, huge advertising and hype campaign and absolutely no competition whatsoever at the time of its release (which shows you that publishers should be a lot more open to releasing games in the summer months). But the hype campaign for Bioshock still paled compared to that for Halo 3. UT 2007 and Crysis had absolutely nothing whatsoever like this, although Crysis was hyped heavily to the hardcore PC niche audience and has probably sold very well in Germany and Eastern Europe, despite the horror stories about the low sales in US.

into a franchise that sees a new release every two years.

Every two years ?

After the fast money, aren't they ?

Originally Posted by doctor_kaz
But the hype campaign for Bioshock still paled compared to that for Halo 3.

*cough* *cough* I didn't even know there was a Halo 3 out !

… at least until I read eventuall about it here …

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I didn't even know there was a Halo 3 out !

Are you actually serious? Wow … in the US it broke even records established by sales of tickets for movies!

call me crazy but I wouldn't go see that movie or game

I would much prefer a RPG, however one point is oblivion has been out 2 years Bioshock 4 months at the most and calling The Election for oblivion is cheating like a little shrub or weed with no stamen.

I finished the game about a week ago (yeah, late to the party) and the first thing I said in a forum was that they could easily make a prequel out Bioshock. But I was thinking more RTS, because of the city building elements. In any event the game was probably the most immerse game I've ever played. And while the developers and publishers went out of their way to disavow the game was an RPG, there sure were a ton of RPG elements in the game play.

What I find curious is why are they talking about coming out with a game every two years? Bioshock is not doubt a success and many regard it as the best game of 2007. Why are they priming the media machine?

The 2 year announcement is fairly old news:

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/48870

It is just a statement and not a reality of course, but I see no way of them changing the genre of the game for some time to come.