It’s been a long while since we last heard from 2K Games about their upcoming fourth entry in the BioShock series, so let’s get that rumour mill churning again. Preliminary indications show that the next BioShock game will be open world and feature quests, but now according to multiple sources, the setting and time period have now been revealed.
According to journalist Colin Moriarty during an episode of the Sacred Symbols podcast (which is paywalled), the fourth BioShock title will take place during the 1960s in a fictional Antarctic city, and will be tied narratively to the previous games.
This news lines up with sources for Video Games Chronicle and Eurogamer, who have heard similar rumours.
“It takes place in a 1960s Antarctic city called Borealis,” Moriarty said. “[The game is] codenamed ‘Parkside’… I’ve been told that the development team has incredible latitude to get it right. That seems and sounds right to me.”
Parkside is indeed the code name for the project, which is being helmed by 2K’s internal studio Cloud Chamber.
Moriarty added that the project is “is very secret and apparently, totally locked up”, with the idea that the game will be compared to what BioShock creator Ken Levine is currently doing with his own game. Levine is not involved in the current BioShock game, but instead is reportedly working with Take-Two Interactive on another title.
Moriarty adds that Cloud Chamber is aiming to release the game in 2022.
None of what Moriarty has said, nor any of what VGC or Eurogamer’s sources have said have been confirmed by 2K or Cloud Chamber. The last BioShock game was 2013’s BioShock: Infinite.