According to recent reports, the next entry in the BioShock franchise is in trouble. A recent review held by 2K executives found the project lacking, specifically stating that the narrative needs more work. Studio head Kelley Gilmore was “ousted”, while creative director Hogarth de la Plante has been moved to a more publishing-based role.
More concerningly, though, it seems that a planned remake of the critically acclaimed and highly influential first BioShock was cancelled earlier this year. While I can’t help but feel bad about this – we don’t know for sure, but developers may have lost work because the project was “shelved” – I really have to ask, who wanted a BioShock remake?
BioShock Was Iconic, But It Doesn’t Need A Remake
I don’t ask this to downplay BioShock’s influence. When it launched in 2007, its “Would you kindly” twist was revolutionary, an unexpected metanarrative revelation that took the concepts of player agency and linearity and used them to comment on the nature of the first person shooter and video games as a whole. It still influences games today, to the point where my colleague Jade King has highlighted that many games are just recycling the BioShock gimmick.
Sure, it was a spiritual successor to the cult classic and equally influential but commercially underperforming System Shock 2, which BioShock creator Ken Levine also had a big hand in developing, but it was a vastly more popular game and widely adopted by the mainstream, even finding a fan in Elon Musk (eye roll).
Everybody knows about BioShock. Some of those people even love BioShock. But BioShock doesn’t need a remake.
Clockwork Revolution Is Far From A Bioshock Infinite Clone - In Fact, It Might Be Way Better
The newest trailer proves that Clockwork Revolution is far more ambitious than Infinite ever was.
How Would A Remake Serve An Already Remastered Game?
BioShock is currently playable on every modern platform. You can find the original version and its remaster on PC and Xbox, while PlayStation just has the remaster. This isn’t a matter of game preservation through bringing an incredibly popular game made for previous console generations to modern ones, it’s already here.
Sure, the remaster came out in 2016, but quite frankly, it looks fine. It’s less than 10 years old, and you can play it in 4k resolution and at 60 fps if you so please. The textures and models were all updated. It doesn’t look like a new, shiny Unreal Engine 5 game, but the vibes are appropriately rancid, the art direction is solid, and it is the best available way to play BioShock.
2K wanted to remake BioShock for profit. Incredibly popular game plus brand spanking new graphics equals dollar signs, after all. Never mind that there’s nothing to actually add to BioShock – the newest installment, BioShock Infinite, had more or less the same gameplay, plus being able to zoom around the city on the Sky-Line, but it’s also a far more open game than the notably linear original BioShock. A remake would have been a fresh coat of paint at best.
But this strategy worked for Naughty Dog, which has released a remake of the already remastered The Last of Us and a remaster of 2020’s The Last of Us Part 2, both of which promised to fully utilise the PlayStation 5’s increased graphical capabilities. Everybody rolls their eyes at this, but clearly these remakes are reliable sources of income, or Naughty Dog and Sony wouldn’t bother with them.
Presumably, 2K wanted to emulate that success, but perhaps somewhere along the line realised the project wasn’t working or wasn’t worth seeing to completion. 2K wanted to line its pockets, but who, exactly, needs a BioShock remake? To my eye, the answer is nobody.
