Zelnick hints at BioShock sequel

By Robert Purchese Published 11 September, 2007

Demo breaks Live record.

2K Games bigwig Strauss Zelnick has said that the two-year release cycle employed for the Grand Theft Auto series could be used for future BioShock titles, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

His comments were made in a recent chit-chat with investors, where he boasted about the 1.5 million sales of the title so far, before suggesting it could become "one of the fastest-selling games in history".

Kriss Akabusi and Cheryl Baker were also on hand to award the game with a record for producing the most sought-after demo on Xbox Live so far - over one million

"We are really pleased that Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace has managed to attract a record number of gamers to its site to download and check out BioShock," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K Games.

BioShock has also become the this year's highest-ranked game across all console platforms on Metacritic.com.

We'd like to think that had something to do with us giving it top marks. Would you kindly pop over to our BioShock review to find out why?

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tejstar #1 4 years ago

    Inevitable given its success...

  • Dizzy #2 4 years ago

    Good game in good sales shock :)

  • morriss #3 4 years ago

    As long as it doesn't turn stal I'm all for it. Although I can't quite work out how they are going to continue the series considering the ending you get. They're pretty final. :)

  • Darkedge #4 4 years ago

    hmm I'll wait for Ken Levine to say anything before I think a Sequel is produced. Mind you I don't think I want a sequel, Bioshock is perfect on it's own.

  • Dizzy #5 4 years ago

    Actually.. maybe they should do a System Shock 2 remake with the Bioshock engine. Would make more sense ;)

  • Xerx3s #6 4 years ago

    His comments were made in a recent chit-chat with investors, where he boasted about the 1.5 million sales of the title so far, before suggesting it could become "one of the fastest-selling games in history".

    1.5 million is by far not the fastest selling game ever.

  • Guv #7 4 years ago

    Make it a Tycoon game! I can see it now... Rapture-topia!

    I realy should start charging for all the brilliant ideas I get.

  • Xerx3s #8 4 years ago

    Actually.. maybe they should do a System Shock 2 remake with the Bioshock engine. Would make more sense ;)

    EA is not in the business of selling the licences that they gather by destroying companies.

  • SharpyVII #9 4 years ago

    Perhaps they could do a prequal

  • bushwod #10 4 years ago

    His comments were made in a recent chit-chat with investors, where he boasted about the 1.5 million sales of the title so far, before suggesting it could become "one of the fastest-selling games in history".

    1.5 million is by far not the fastest selling game ever.


    Doesn't that depend on how long it took to sell 1.5 million?

  • miiiguel #11 4 years ago

    Xerx3s: humm... 1.5 that's the number of units, what about the time window, it is as important to your statement isn't it ?

  • thepiedpiper #12 4 years ago

    It's a good game. No, it's a great game but -without being all spoilery- where would a sequel take it? There's not much more they can do with it really story wise...can they?

    Does that mean we're looking at prequel territory?

  • Lebowski #13 4 years ago

    SPOILER ALERT(ISH) ........

    Of course they could do a sequel. Who says you have to play the lead character from BioShock 1? And from the looks of it, I don't think we explored 10% of Rapture. More Plasmids, more brilliant BioShock, please, however long perfection may take.















    Edited by 1 at 11/09/07 @ 12:44

  • doomboom #14 4 years ago

    >before suggesting it could become "one of the fastest-selling games in history".

    >1.5 million is by far not the fastest selling game ever.


    He "suggested" it "could" become "one of" the fastest selling games in history. Please read the article properly before jumping to conclusions.

  • quantumsheep #15 4 years ago

    "Would you kindly pop over to our BioShock review to find out why?"

    I like!

  • HankScorpio #16 4 years ago

    I'm sorry, it seems everyone has missed out the most spectacular part of this story - "Kriss Akabusi and Cheryl Baker" ... I mean WTF?!? Did they arrive in a 1983 silver DeLorean?

  • DBSnappa #17 4 years ago

    I'd like a prequel too. To see it more populated and on the verge of where it became. Can't elaborate more without ruining some aspect of the game for those of you who haven't finished it yet.

  • RexRunti #18 4 years ago

    @Hank Scorpio
    I think that was a joke as they used to present "Record Breakers".

    And a sequal wouldn't work. But a prequel could be truly amazing (maybe you would meet a few more real people).
    Edited by 1 at 11/09/07 @ 12:11

  • the_dudefather #19 4 years ago

    they should make sequelshock, based in a dystopian society where the games market is oversaturated by sequels. you play as a games programmer on his first day, but a sudden accident causes everyone else to become obsessed with topping last years sales figures. ;)




  • sharpfish #20 4 years ago

    Maybe they should fix the first game before talking about sequels.

  • The-Bodybuilder #21 4 years ago

    >"1.5 million is by far not the fastest selling game ever."

    There is a difference between "the" and "one of the", y'know.

  • M83J01P97 #22 4 years ago

    People seem to be forgetting that Ken Levine himself has said that BioShock is essentially a self contained story and that they are more interested in expanding some of the ideas they have explored in BioShock, in a different game, not a simple sequel.

    And I personally would prefer BioShock to remain a one off hit, rather than the next Halo franchise.

  • dr_swin #23 4 years ago

    @rexrunti - here - here.

  • SBfistfun #24 4 years ago

    Kriss Akabusi and Cheryl Baker

    I want to curl a steamer off on their chests, that'll learn 'em

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #25 4 years ago

    Sorry, have removed a couple of comments. Please PM me if you want to talk about it.
    Edited by 1 at 11/09/07 @ 12:45

  • Crea #26 4 years ago

    1.5 million copies in a couple of weeks is very good going, although sales will inevitably slow down very considerably, as they always do. But I wouldn't be suprised to see them pushing 2.5 million eventually, which is a very, very successful game, if not quite Halo big.

  • captainrentboy #27 4 years ago

    Finished the game over the weekend (I only get the odd hour game playing time here and there) and I loved pretty much all of it, the end cutscene was slightly dissapointing and short (I got the goody two shoes one) but apart from that it was a great lil game, definitely one of the most immersive I've played for a long time.
    Like a few have said, I can't really see a sequel working as most of the story's loose ends are tied by the end, but I'm sure there's a grand prequel in there somewhere.

  • mkreku #28 4 years ago

    Since when has Eurogamer started censoring comments..?

  • superted1974 #29 4 years ago

    Ok so it is a good game

    I think they would have sold more if the control system was better.

    Imagine if you could run by tilting the pad forward or jump by shaking it left and right and then waving the pad above your head.

  • andromeda #30 4 years ago

    Bioshock in Cheryl Baker in the same article?

    this is one weird tuesday

  • Wite_Noiz #31 4 years ago

    Firstly, I have really enjoyed BioShock - the environment more than the gameplay.
    Stability issues aside, the weapons/control system could do with a little work, as could general difficulty and resource quantity.

    Aside from that, I'd love to see stories expanding on Rapture's past and future.
    It would be amazing to have a Half-Life 1 style game where you enter Rapture before the event(s) and have to survive through it.

    Perhaps playing as Fontaine or one of the other background names?

  • Schiraman #32 4 years ago

    Very good game, but it doesn't deserve the degree of hype it's getting - it's far from perfect. Still, nice to hear it's selling well.

    I've no interest in a direct sequel, but if they went on to make games with a similar feel to SS2 and Bioshock in new settings that would be cool.

  • Garulon #33 4 years ago

    "Imagine if you could run by tilting the pad forward or jump by shaking it left and right and then waving the pad above your head. "

    I'm imagining. It sounds a bit gimmicky. Is there something wrong with thumbsticks I'm not aware of?

  • Raz76 #34 4 years ago

    If this is the same as this news reported by GameSpot:

    [link url=http://www.game spot.com/news/6178502.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews& tag=latestnews;title;0
    ]http://ww w.gamespot.com/news/6178502.htm...[/link]

    - a couple of points:

    1) the game has shipped 1,5 mio, not sold it.

    2) they talk of a sequel "GTA-style", which would mean same gameplay, different story and characters.

  • Darren #35 4 years ago

    The BioShock demo certainly broke a record for me... the one for the longest Marketplace download ever at over 20 hours!!! Yup, despite being able to download 1.3 GBs of PS3 demos in less than 40 minutes the same sized equivalent on the 360 on the same day using the same router connection took the best part of a day! LOL

  • sn3jk #36 4 years ago

    horray for sequels!

  • Garulon #37 4 years ago

    "able to download 1.3 GBs of PS3 demos in less than 40 minutes the same sized equivalent on the 360 on the same day using the same router connection took the best part of a day! LOL "

    In fairness, there's only you and two other blokes on the european PS3 servers.

  • thepiedpiper #38 4 years ago

    "In fairness, there's only you and two other blokes on the european PS3 servers."

    True dat!!

  • mkreku #39 4 years ago

    But it's free.. Even if it would be slower, it would be acceptable, since it's free. Paying for a service that can't take the heat? Bah.

  • Guv #40 4 years ago

    Aye I agree, the speed that day was not acceptable. However that is so far the only time I've ever had any trouble with Live, 1 gig demos usually take less then 10 minutes to download.

    That day was bad but they should be allowed one misstake no?
    Edited by 1 at 11/09/07 @ 15:31

  • doomboom #41 4 years ago

    The only reason it was bad that day was because it was such a popular download. All other times speed isnt an issue so its not fair saying the service sucks just because you were inconvenienced on that one day.

    Plus Live isnt really that expensive, I know the retail is £39.99 for 12 months but it can be had for as cheap as £25 if you shop around. Not exactly breaking the bank considering you get a years service.

  • kangarootoo #42 4 years ago

    Am I going nuts, or have my comments in this thread been removed? I can never bloody find threads I've posted on if I leave it half the day, so maybe I've missed one.

    If they have been removed from this particular thread, I'd be very interested to know why.

  • Bongo #43 4 years ago

    @kangarootoo
    "Sorry, have removed a couple of comments. Please PM me if you want to talk about it."
    Bertie posted this message above.

  • Baggies1879 #44 4 years ago

    "Would you kindly pop over to our BioShock review to find out why?"

    Genius!!

  • kangarootoo #45 4 years ago

    @Bongo

    Ah, didn't notice that. Cheers.

  • Icecoldd #46 4 years ago

    Fastest selling game ever is definitively WoW:BC.
    Still I think Bioshock is great and a sequel would be first on the wish list.