BioShock Isolation Reportedly Won't Release Until 2024

It's been almost a decade since steampunk first-person shooter BioShock Infinite by developer Irrational Games and publisher 2K Games launched for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, leaving series fans wondering where it can go up next.

While celebrating fifteenth anniversary of BioShock franchise recently, many fans were curious about potential future of titular series. Although official sources were silent about a new game, a recent leak offers a bit more details for now.

According to Twitter user Oops Leaks, upcoming series entry and fourth title is called BioShock Isolation. It follows a group of refugees from Rapture to Antarctica for an arctic adventure that will launch at some point around 2024 or later.

Following an internal data breach, a logo, official title and story concept were leaked earlier on social media. BioShock Isolation was planned to announce at the beginning of this year and can still be shown later at The Game Awards 2022.

TGA host Geoff Keighley previously claimed that it was his dream to announce a new BioShock game during The Game Awards. However, that announcement was postponed after developer Cloud Chamber saw many employees quitting.

There isn't any possible announcement date yet but Take-Two Interactive report suggests that BioShock 4 will release before end of 2024. A previous leak claims that it may be announced at next PlayStation Showcase or anytime in 2022.

Cloud Chamber Studios is not trying to finish it as quickly as they can and are concerned about final product quality. Isolation is still BioShock with similar concepts, which doesn't attempt to reboot, reinvent or rethink basics of the series.

In order to avoid any delays, dev team is trying to be sure about an exact date as they polish it with care. Cloud Chamber has returned to their former number of employees and continues to appoint new people to speed up development.

Twitter user Oops Leaks has shared potential details regarding upcoming BioShock Isolation on social media.

EVERYTHING I KNOW AND HEARD ABOUT THE NEW BIOSHOCK

Do not take most of this information at face value, I thought for a long time whether it was worth sharing all of this at all but a large number of people crave for at least some information from me.

Artwork credit: @griefgreen pic.twitter.com/AArq9oMZ90

— Oops Leaks (@oopsleaks) September 4, 2022

Set in an open-world of Antarctica, new BioShock game features a main story that has multiple endings. Apparently, themes of aggregate states of water will be playing a huge part in story as well as lore that are widely tied to side-quests.

BioShock 4 art-style and in-game design is much akin to Deathloop with 1960's British Invasion and counter-culture vibes. Players will be able to control a female protagonist, who belongs to labor class, forced to live in a failing under-city.

Combat system will see blend of abilities and variety of utilities, all having an impact on terrain when they are carried out.  An early job listings have teased that BioShock Isolation will have a much larger open-world than any predecessor.

Isolation may bring back a number of familiar characters or their alternate reality counterparts to tie with previous plotlines. Entire story is built upon a refugee crisis as Antarctica becomes a sanctuary for people who already left Rapture.

Reported leaks claim that there are two cities; upper one is known as Borealis and lower one is called Aurora. Despite obvious class disparity, players will eventually enter the prosperous city of Borealis with a sole goal to unite these two.

BioShock Isolation will reportedly be using Unreal Engine 5 to build its open-world and former developers of Irrational Games are currently working on it alongside staffs who made Deus Ex, Mafia 3 as well as Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Image credit: Tari Márk Dávid