Legendary producer Rod Fergusson has been appointed as the new franchise head for the BioShock series, following the fourth game’s well-documented production struggles.
Fergusson announced his new position on social media earlier today, declaring that he’ll be heading up BioShock 4 developer Cloud Chamber and “overseeing development of the next BioShock game, along with franchise extensions like the in-development Netflix movie”.
He goes on to say that while he’s excited to start his new role, he understands that “the studio restructuring is a difficult time for the team”, and that he’s “deeply grateful” for the work completed on BioShock 4 by Cloud Chamber thus far (although we still don’t know exactly how much work that is).
If you’re wondering to what Fergusson is referring, it was reported recently that a remake of the first BioShock game was canceled internally at publisher 2K, and that development on the still-unannounced fourth major BioShock game is in a rough patch.
According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, 2K execs are unhappy with the way BioShock 4‘s story was progressing, leading to the ousting of Cloud Chamber head Kelley Gilmore and a change in creative director Hogarth de la Plante’s role to a more “publishing”-focused position.
The internal review that led to these decisions also apparently resulted in layoffs at Cloud Chamber, which is likely what Fergusson is referring to when he talks about “studio restructuring”. It’s another corporate term for staff cuts.
Rod Fergusson has something of a reputation as a “closer”, a producer who’s brought in to bring struggling projects over the finish line. It’s a trick he performed before with 2013’s BioShock Infinite, which is probably why 2K execs feel like they’re in safe hands with him now.
It’s worth noting that amid all of this upheaval, BioShock 4 hasn’t actually been officially announced yet, so we don’t even know what direction the game will take.
Still, with Fergusson at the helm, perhaps the huge, lumbering Big Daddy that is the franchise at this point can start juddering into motion again. Stay tuned for more on this one.
