To be fair, without Take-Two BioShock might have never turned out to be what it was, maybe it never would have been finished at all. It's understandable that they're talking about building a franchise - even successful titles may have a hard time reaching the break-even since the upfront costs for the very first game are high. Selling a sequel is way easier since you already got an established name and a community.

That said, yeah, it would be nice to have a publisher or a film studio that have the balls to not produce a sequel to a popular game/movie, but I can also see why it's tempting to go the other route, especially if this could be a second major franchise. Let's not forget that Take-Two has been unprofitable for a quite a while, and all their attempts at establishing a new IP (All Pro, Manhunt, Bully) weren't exactly successful. (GTA already did exist before DMS got picked up by T2.)

Yes, I sense a shark is about to be jumped.

What are they going to do? Make another Rapture somewhere else? Have a game set in a different part of Rapture with different splicers nobody's seen before? I guess the plasmids are the things that would transfer, and you could conceivably put Adam, eve and splicers in 1960's New York or somewhere, but I frankly don't see the point. It would be empty compared to Bioshock.

You'll have all sorts of people being pissed no matter what. It is in the nature of people to find reasons to be pissed.

I don't see the problem. Wasn't System Shock Two better than the original? So long as Levine & Co. are behind it, and I don't see any reason why Bioshock Two couldn't do the same thing. I'm sure that they would be able to identify the same concerns behind making a sequel as everyone else, and handle them accordingly.

You never know. Deus Ex was the perfect game to do a sequel, and they botched it up so bad they took Deus Ex off of Project: Snowblind, and we'll probably never see another Deus Ex game.

Here, maybe you find other Rapture's in other parts of the Earth. Maybe Antarctica or Africa. You have a new enviromental theme to work off of, and plenty of Bioshock's "technology". If the gameplay is strong, it won't matter.

I see no reason to worry about them making the game. Just play it if it is good, and play something else if they botch it. But never expect a business not so something that would net them profit.

That sounds awesome indeed. If they make a sequel it should definitely be placed in space, with great floating water effects.

BioShock is a game about a story, and this one game told that story well. Anything else will just be milking it.

Exactly... they already took the entire gameplay from space and moved it to an entirely different setting.

Bioshock 2 could really just be something similar, without being a direct continuation of the story. If they go the story route, it would be bad, but I think Levine and Co. are too good and concerned with their craft to just toss out a lazy sequel. Besides, 2k said they're shooting for a 3 year time frame: that's enough time to really make something worthy. If they said "expect bioshock 2 in 18 months"... then we'd have to worry.

Bioshock 2 will be to Bioschock what Moonraker was to the Spy Who Loved Me. Replace underwater utopia with one in space. Also, make the space version absolutely terrible but make up for it with a great line at the end.

What really set the game apart for me was the fact that it was a time capsule, of sorts. I think it's an integral part of the game, and any sequel or prequel would have to do that art deco, 50's feel just as well, if not better.

I smell an Xbox 720 launch title...

QFT. Ken Levine and Co. haven't let us down yet. Bioshock's success means more resources at their disposal to make another kick ass game. I don't see how that can be a bad thing in any way.

OK, so underwater and space setting is out. So how about an underground shelter? Perhaps after a nuclear attack, to have the desperate setting? The place could be called, say, Vault...

I haven't played Bioshock yet and won't for some time thanks to some entirely unforseen costs, but to me, there's quite some promise in a 'Final Fantasy'-ish kind of approach. Keep the "-shock" part of the name, create a new setting and story touching similiar concepts as the last game. Shellshock (grim war-themed game), Steamshock (grim industrialization-themed game), Timeshock (grim sci-fi-themed game)... I'd buy them. If I had money.

Hehe, i have an idea for Bioshock 2:

*Camera cuts from black to an old lady, withered and frail, lying in a hospital bed. The white sheets and environment cloud her in a haze of light. A voiceover starts:*

VO: We found her as she was dying, alone in the wilderness. But what we discovered when we tried to help her....

*Camera switches to a lab with mutated animals performing special abilities, they fight and jostle with one another. Researchers look on with dispationate interest*

VO: We took what she had given us and studied the effects that the substrate had on animals. Once we were men, tinkering with nature...

*The fight ends and one animal rises victorious*

VO: Now we are GODS!

I think you should fight sharks in the sequel. Maybe also jump over them.

The prequel idea is a good one. There are plenty of good books he could base another game on, though. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress comes to mind. Someone should really make a Snow Crash game, too.

I agree whole-heartedly. Who says a spiritual successor can't have a spiritual successor? A new shock title would be obvious enough for the denser gamers to recognize the connection and subtle enough to not feel like such a cash grab to us elitist bastids. Plus they get the freedom to tackle a whole new set of socio-philosophical extremes in a completely fresh setting.

The Rapture that we know and love is not the product of Levine's imagination given infinite resources, but rather an environment grown to order to fit the restrictions of both the technology and their abilities. As technology progresses and their abilities as developers grow I'd prefer to see them unfettered by the old limitations of Rapture.

As for multiplayer, we have plenty of developers working on versus-type multiplayer gametypes. I'd hate to see their singleplayer talents wasted in that way, but a dedicated cooperative experience, that could be something. Give two players different abilities, different goals at varying levels of conflicting with each other, and completely different perspectives on a crazy new setting. Let us be Atlas and Ryan. Oh dear, I've got myself worked up again over something that will never be.