Ken Levine: BioShock Infinite multiplayer rumors were "a little frustrating" for Irrational

BioShock Infinite breaks through its cloud cover and skydives onto your computer on March 26, a date that will also mark the end of a turbulent journey of repeated delays , box art quibbles , and staffing woes . In an interview with OPM , Irrational boss Ken Levine comments on previous rumors of a multiplayer mode and layoffs , saying that the attention these two issues got was "a little frustrating" for the team.

“We were very careful never to say there was multiplayer in the game," Levine explains. "It was a little frustrating for us to say it has been cut when we never announced it in the first place. We didn't want to talk about anything regarding multiplayer because we weren't sure about it in the same way we weren't sure about a million things. You'll see the art book when it comes out, and you'll see a million characters that were cut, a million levels that were changed, ideas for weapons were thrown out. It's just part of the process, and we're fortunate as a company that we're able to do that kind of stuff.

"I think because we didn't have any news for so long we sort of went quiet," he adds. "Because we figured we had showed people at E3 what the game was, and now it was just time to let people play it. That led to a lot of time for speculation."

As for staff departures from Irrational, Levine chalks up the added attention to hyperbole and prefers to let Infinite's actual content do the talking. "It's far less dramatic and interesting," he says. "Somebody leaving the company or somebody joining the company. I'm sure your business has people leaving, and it's not particularly interesting. What can you do at that point except say, 'The proof is in the pudding; play the game' that can tell you better than I can ever tell you about the state of the game.”

We've talked about the things we liked and didn't like from our hands-on experiences with Infinite. Do you think Infinite's sky-high story will cancel out its development troubles?

Omri Petitte is a former PC Gamer associate editor and long-time freelance writer covering news and reviews. If you spot his name, it probably means you're reading about some kind of first-person shooter. Why yes, he would like to talk to you about Battlefield. Do you have a few days?