BioShock franchise isn’t dead even after Irrational closure and underwhelming Infinite sales

Irrational Games spent five years making BioShock Infinite.

That’s a lot of time and money to spend on one project, and it likely put a lot of pressure on the studio to sell a ton of copies. As 2013 came to an end, however, the physical version of BioShock Infinite didn’t make the top-10 best-selling games of the year, according to the NPD Group. In fact, the disc version of Minecraft for Xbox 360 (which was a year-old port of a more than 2-year-old game) outsold the physical release of BioShock Infinite for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined.

Now, Irrational games is no more. Studio founder Ken Levine says he is shutting it down to work on small digital games at a new development house within Take-Two label 2K Games, but that doesn’t mean that the BioShock franchise is dead.

In his letter to fans, Levine noted that he is “handing the reins” of the BioShock universe to 2K. Now, the publisher is speaking out about the future of the brand in a comment to news site Polygon.

“BioShock is one of our most beloved and critically acclaimed franchises,” a 2K spokesperson said. “And we are indebted to Ken and the talented team at Irrational Games for their contributions to the series with BioShock and BioShock Infinite, the latter being one of the most decorated games of 2013.

“The BioShock universe remains a rich creative canvas for many untold stories, and we look forward to exploring the next BioShock experience.”

That’s not very specific, but it also seems to confirm that 2K won’t let the BioShock franchise go dormant. Irrational Games had previously promised a PlayStation Vita release in the BioShock franchise, but it’s not talking about that. We’ve reached out to the publisher for a comment, and we’ll update this story with any new information.