In my formative gaming years during the Xbox 360 era, one of the game series that left a permanent impact on me was the BioShock games. I was mainly just a Halo and Fable baby, but Bioshock and its sequels drew me in and left me scarred (for the better) like no other recent game series. Following the Burial at Sea DLC and seeing the series’ story end, I was able to close that chapter in my gaming life and remember the series fondly. Now that I am still eagerly awaiting Ken Levine and Ghost Story’s Judas, I stumbled upon a revelation that a new Bioshock was in the works. Obviously, nothing is really known about it officially. But the studio, Cloud Chamber, has been working on the game in secret for many years now, with its tease back in 2019.
Fast forward now, 6 whole years since that tease, and in a report from Bloomberg, Cloud Chamber has been hit with layoffs, and worse, the next Bioshock is being delayed, despite not having a clear release date before the report.
Details on the Layoffs at the new Bioshock Developers Studio
According to a report from Jason Schreier at Kotaku in 2019, despite being announced in 2019, Cloud Chamber’s new BioShock game was in development as early as 2014 under a studio by the name of Certain Affinity. The announcement was followed by the launch of a website named “Theresalwaysalighthouse.com” which is in reference to BioShock Infinite. In a new report from Jason at Bloomberg, he stated the following:
Cloud Chamber, which has offices in Novato, California, and Montreal, cut more than 80 jobs Tuesday as part of a reorganization, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The studio had about 250 employees before the cuts.
The game will also be delayed from a previously planned release in late 2026 or early 2027, said the people. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Cloud Chamber had pushed out its studio head and creative director following development hiccups on the next game in the BioShock series.
For now, there is not much more to go on. Rod Fergusson, of Gears of War and Diablo fame, has recently joined Cloud Chamber to help get the game over the finish line. This is good news for longtime fans of the series, but it is questionable that layoffs are happening now with such a tight deadline before release. Let alone any real gameplay or story footage shown to the masses.
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