BioShock PS3 Being Ported by Four Studios

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Four separate studios are working collectively to bring the narrative-driven underwater shooter BioShock to PlayStation 3, publisher 2K Games has revealed.

Along with 2K Boston and 2K Australia, which originally produced and released the game on PC and Xbox 360 last August, 2K Marin and external studio Digital Extremes are aiding in the port's development.

Formed late last year, 2K Marin is said to be made up of several ex-BioShock staffers and has been tasked with the next BioShock game. Digital Extremes' past efforts include Dark Sector (PS3, 360) and Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC).

The exact role each studio is playing in the development is unclear, though 2K noted that Digital Extremes is helping "optimize BioShock's performance on the PlayStation 3."

All four are believed to be working on other projects in addition to BioShock PS3, which could explain the need for multiple studios. 2K Marin is known to be working on the BioShock sequel, while 2K Boston and Australia are rumored to be reviving X-COM.

There has been no indication of Digital Extremes' current internal project or projects.

BioShock is expected to hit PS3 in October with as-yet-unspecified new features and content.. An untitled sequel is slated to hit unknown systems by October 2009.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 3, 2008 9:17 AM

    In before "zOMG PS3 is so bad it needs four studios to port this game!!!!"

    • FTY legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      July 3, 2008 9:17 AM

      I beat you to it :P

    • reply
      July 3, 2008 9:24 AM

      You have to admit it is troubling when the game is based on Unreal middleware that's already been ported to the platform. (Maybe the problems are coming from modifications they made to Unreal. Or maybe there are no problems and it just made sense to divide the work that way.)

      • reply
        July 3, 2008 9:35 AM

        3 of them can be easily explained by having worked on the game originally given 2K Marin's origins. Digital Extremes seems a likely candidate to be doing content optimization while I assume BioShock's content team at their respective studios are working on their next titles.

        I highly doubt it's 4 fully-staffed teams doing the work.

        • reply
          July 3, 2008 9:51 AM

          Yeah is it really fair to say four studios? I guess it is but was always on the impression that 2K Boston/Australia was considered just the one studio.

          • reply
            July 3, 2008 9:53 AM

            Also true, Irrational was always considered a single studio despite its multiple locations much like Pandemic never differentiated between locations - I also want to say Day 1 has a separate division on the east coast that works parallel to the main studio.

        • reply
          July 3, 2008 12:31 PM

          Yeah, I suspect you're right there. It seems odd of 2K to say there are 4 studios working on it but not give more details about why, or how many people are working from each studio, and so on.

          Did they say it without thinking and for no particular reason? (Or reveal it in an investor conference call or something.)

          Is it supposed to make us think "wow, they're really putting a lot of effort into the port?"

          Or is it a publisher having a little dig at the relative difficulty of development on the PS3?

          In general, knowing that 4 studios worked on a port makes me feel more nervous about the quality of the game/port, rather than less. It may be completely the right thing to do and give great results but I don't see what 2K gain by telling us instead keeping those details internal.

          In this case I would be pretty surprised if it's a bad port, though.

      • reply
        July 3, 2008 9:46 AM

        I'm guessing that's the case. The Bioshock devs had stated earlier that they had made major modifications to the engine to fit their needs, no doubt to cater to the 360 architecture (which is more in line with the PC than the PS3)

    • reply
      July 3, 2008 9:33 AM

      thats what came to mind. lol, it takes 4 studios. hahaha

    • reply
      July 3, 2008 9:40 AM

      I don't really think saying "in before x" makes you any less the guy who wants to be the first to say it.

      • reply
        July 3, 2008 2:20 PM

        Yes, because ridiculing the predictability of fanboy responses to news is exactly the same as agreeing with it.

        • reply
          July 3, 2008 2:26 PM

          Well, we are all impressed with your wit I can tell you that good sir.

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