When former Diablo boss Rod Fergusson announced his departure from Blizzard earlier this month, my PC Gamer compatriot Tyler Colp put forth an interesting, amusing theory: He was headed back to 2K Games to get BioShock 4 back on track, just as he did with BioShock Infinite. And he called it: As confirmed by his LinkedIn page, Fergusson is now "senior vice president, head of the BioShock franchise at 2K."
"Yes, it’s true. I’m returning to 2K to lead a series that means a lot to me as the new Head of the BioShock Franchise," Fergusson wrote. "I’ll be heading up Cloud Chamber and overseeing development of the next BioShock game, along with franchise extensions like the in-development Netflix movie.
"Shipping BioShock Infinite, over 12 years ago, was a pivotal moment in my career as a leader. And while I’m excited for my return to the iconic series, alongside some familiar faces, I recognize the studio restructuring is a difficult time for the team. I’m deeply grateful to everyone who has been working so hard over the past several years on this next iteration and I’m committed to building upon that work to create a BioShock game we’ll be proud of, and our players will love."
That "restructuring" was announced to 2K staff in an email sent by president David Ismailer, which was shared with IGN.
"Work on the next BioShock game has been underway for several years," Ismailer wrote. "While we’re excited about the foundational gameplay elements of the project, we’ve made the decision with studio leadership to rework certain aspects that are core to a BioShock game, and in doing so are reducing the size of the development team to focus on this work and give the game more time in development."
A subsequent Bloomberg report said more than 80 people, representing about one-third of Cloud Chamber's total headcount, were put out of work. The report also claims a planned release target of late 2026 or early 2027 has been pushed back.
It has indeed been a long haul for BioShock 4, which was first reported in 2018 (and made official a year later), and has gone pretty much entirely unheard from ever since. 2K seemed to run out of patience at the beginning of August after the game reportedly failed a development review, removing studio head Kelley Gilmore and moving creative director Hogarth de la Plante to a different role.
Fergusson left Blizzard just a week after that shakeup, and while our prediction of a return to BioShock wasn't entirely serious, it was grounded in precedent: Back in 2012, Fergusson pulled the ripcord on Epic Games to join Irrational, where he helped put the finishing touches on BioShock Infinite.
As good as Fergusson's return may be for the future of BioShock 4, there's no overlooking the ugliness of yet more layoffs in an industry that's been absolutely decimated over the past few years. PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon wrote at the end of 2024 that after thousands of layoffs and dozens of studio closures through the year, it felt like the industry was "poised for a vibe shift—or maybe a reckoning" in 2025. Instead, it somehow feels like things are even worse. The reckoning it is, I guess.
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