How recently uncovered Bioshock Infinite concept art gives clues to the franchise’s future
With more than a half-decade having gone by since its last release, the Bioshock franchise still manages to hold one of the most devoted fan bases in video gaming. Yet beyond the setting of Bioshock Infinite and the iconic city of Colombia in all its pristine glory, lies a more industrial remnant of one of its possible pasts…
Recently uncovered concept art from someone who worked on the game shows a much more steampunk themed version of the beloved city that captivated not only Bioshock fans but gamers alike who showered the third installment in the Bioshock universe with critical acclaim and record-breaking sales.
The post which was titled, “Bio Steam punk shock city design” seems to show a much more steampunk like Colombia and was originally released on the portfolio of a veteran California based concept artist named Eddie Del Rio. Del Rio had previously worked for 2k Games and explained the art to be from an unreleased Bioshock game
Two months later Del Rio would release another teaser of concept art, this one showing a gear filled interior control room for the floating city that he said was never used in the games final project.
Though Del Rio himself didn’t give details on the art after being reached for comment, other industry insiders have given explanations of its origins.
According to a senior developer who worked on Bioshock Infinite the art was intended to be for the Bioshock Infinite DLCs Burial at Sea Episode 1 & 2. These expansions were originally contracted out to be made by the developers of Bioshock 2, the California based games studio 2K Marin. According to those involved in the project, their work on the sequels lasted for three months until it was decided that Irrational Games would develop the DLCs internally and the 2k version of the game was cancelled. The final DLC which ended up being released used no prior assets from the 2k Marin version and was built from scratch.
Much like the cancelled Bioshock movie, the community may never know what the 2k version of Burial at Sea would be like, but its existence and the scrapped ideas that inspired the steampunk Colombia may live on in the franchises future and give us clues to what those same designers have in store for Bioshock 3.
While reporting on the making of Mafia 3 a Kotaku employee uncovered that the 2k Marin studio (which was rumored to have closed years prior after massive layoffs) was still active and working on a new Bioshock game codenamed Parkside. Other clues for this new installment in the franchise include a stockholders report from 2017 claiming that 2019 would see record breaking sales for the company with the release of a new game in one of their major franchises. Though many believe this unnamed franchise installment was the later announced Borderlands 3.
Still, taking into account the normal game development timeframe, if these reports are any indication for what the company has in store then this new Bioshock game may be announced sooner than anyone expects.
With years of silence about the “tight lipped” project it seems that only time will tell on what might become of the beloved franchise but if this recently uncovered concept art from the prior game is any indication of what the next game will be like, then fans might find Bioshock 4 to be nothing like they had anticipated.
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