Development of the first game from BioShock creator Ken Levine’s studio founded in 2014 is in “development hell,” according to Bloomberg. After seven years, the game would have been completely scrapped several times and turned in a different direction.
The problems of the project, according to many employees of Levine’s studio, called Ghost Story, lie largely with Levine himself. Bloomberg writes that based on conversations with fifteen anonymous employees, both current and former. For example, Levine would not be able to communicate his vision well and would not tolerate a response from employees. People who have worked with him describe him as “an extraordinary genius,” but also refer to him as a “stubborn perfectionist” with a delicate ego. He would also demand too much from the small team. There is still no release period known internally and there is no name for the game yet.
In 2014, Levine announced he was closing Irrational Games, under which he made BioShock, to start a new, smaller studio. Before that, he wanted to develop an ambitious story-driven game, although no more information has been released since then. Take-Two Interactive continued to serve as the studio’s publisher, but Levine would no longer be involved in the BioShock franchise. According to Bloomberg, Take-Two currently still owns Ghost Story, despite its lack of results over the past seven years.
