Believe it or not, a handheld Bioshock was once in the works, but it wouldn't have taken the franchise's iconic FPS formula on the go. Instead, Bioshock creator Ken Levine says it would have been a turn-based strategy title.
The tidbits of information about a game that never came to life come directly from Levine via Twitter, where he often shares his opinions and answers questions from fans.
Levine, who says he loves his PlayStation Vita, envisioned a handheld Bioshock that "would work well on Vita, and not be a compromise in any way." Rather than porting over a console version of Bioshock to the handheld, a platform where FPS games traditionally struggle, Levine says the game would have gone an entirely different route.
"I was thinking a Final Fantasy Tactics style thing set in pre-fall Rapture," Levine says.
So why didn't the game ever see the light of day? Levine says Bioshock's publisher, 2K, and Sony couldn't put a deal together, but that both companies seemed optimistic about the title in 2011. Levine says he would love to do it himself, but can't due to "lawyers and all that."
That's probably because Levine's studio, Irrational Games, was shut down by Levine himself in February, in the process laying off dozens of people. While the studio still exists in name, it is now a small team led by Levine who will focus on smaller, more narrative-focused games for core gamers.
"To meet the challenge ahead, I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers," Levine said in a statement about the closure.
Publisher 2K Games still owns the rights to the Bioshock franchise, saying at the time of Irrational's restructuring that "The BioShock universe remains a rich creative canvas for many untold stories, and we look forward to exploring the next BioShock experience."
Does that mean a handheld Bioshock could still happen? Possibly. Bioshock is one of 2K's most iconic franchise's, and you would think Sony would be eager to snatch up a Bioshock title exclusively for a Sony console.
That might not be the case, however. Sony's Vita hasn't found much success, and is now being pushed as a companion device to the PlayStation 4, making the idea of Sony spending a large amount of cash for exclusivity rights for a game on what many consider a dying platform an unwise business decision. Still, stranger things have happened.
