This week, 2K Games began teasing what looks to be a brand new IP. Gamers have been waiting for 2K to announce a "new triple-A title" since that quote was slipped into an earnings call with 2K's investors in early May.
Using the hashtag #Advent, the teasers depict a future utopian society, where anyone is able to live in high-tech luxury and take part in advanced gene therapy procedures that "free you from illness." It sounds a bit as if the technology from the space station in Elysium existed here on earth. Something called "The Advent Administration" has developed this gene therapy, as well as building and operating "Advent cities."
A promotional website for Advent claims that in these cities, architectural advancements are allowing Advent to build gleaming towers that "utilize space in efficient ways never before seen." The site also says that Advent cities are "protected 24 hours a day by Advent forces."
#ADVENT pic.twitter.com/hBE6WP2a73
— 2K (@2K) May 25, 2015
If Advent is starting to sound like a totalitarian government, it's for good reason. An in-universe hacker is altering Advent's website to reflect the "lies" that Advent is telling the public, stating that the "world of tomorrow" that Advent's technology promises leads to lives lived in fear.
Another viral image wants us to believe that Advent's rosy exterior is hiding the fact that millions of these city residents have gone missing.
Millions have started living the ADVENT way! #ADVENT pic.twitter.com/qyfMc1GklE — ★ Kirito ★ (@iKiritoSky) May 26, 2015
But wait a minute. Doesn't 2K Games also own the rights to the BioShock franchise? And hasn't 2K promised to pick up Irrational Games' baton and keep making additional games?
What if this #Advent business is teasing a new BioShock? Imagine what that would mean... Instead of a city under the sea, or floating above the clouds, it would be a dystopic, seemingly perfect city of the future.
It's not so outlandish a theory. One sentence on the promotional website describes the gene therapy procedures as "a complex and cutting edge system of DNA splicing." No modern gamer can hear the word splicing without immediately thinking of the Splicers from the first BioShock. And given how the BioShock games' always feature tonics that imbue users with unique abilities, it's not at all a stretch to see the parallel of a supposedly ideal society where use (or abuse) of "gene therapy" has gone horribly wrong.
BioShock games require a unique angle on philosophical and cultural commentary, and again, it's easy to see how #Advent could fit that mold, with a cautionary tale about the abuse of technology and the timely debate of safety vs. freedom. If it is a new BioShock, then it's set in a location that qualifies as a wild departure from previous entries. Both Rapture and Columbia were cities of the past, where the game #Advent is teasing looks to be set in the near future.
Then again, it's just as likely this could be the brand new IP that was promised to investors earlier this month. Whatever it is, we're dying to know more.
With E3 on the horizon, it shouldn't be long before we get more details.
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