Plenty of publishers turned down Bioshock

by Justin McElroy on Aug 13th 2007 1:01PM

While the unbearably long time it's taking to download the Bioshock demo (65% and counting, baby!) is pretty much excruciating to us who are hotly anticipating the game, one has to imagine there's at least one guy who's got a smile on his face: Designer Ken Levine. According to a new interview, he and his team have had quite the struggle to get the shooter to this point.

Senior designer Joe McDonagh detailed the long journey for CVG, saying that Levine had taken the game to several publishers who decided that the cerebral FPS wasn't a fit for their company. McDonagh rails, "Something I realized very quickly was that as much as your boss won't ever know that you turned down a future game of the year, he will know that you signed up a turkey. You don't get fired for not taking risks." If the response to the demo is any indication of earning potential, there are a few execs out there who had better keep mum about meeting with Levine.

Source

Tags: 2kgames, bioshock, Joe-McDonagh, kenlevine, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (57)

I don't know how you could turn this thing down. The concept is just incredible.

The FPS format certainly has its presence on PCs and the 360, and while the setting and backdrop are unique, nothing about it screams innovation or sensation. I still think even the title is a bit vague and generic.

The concept is so-so, but from what I can see the execution looks incredible.

Maybe their pitch was "spiritual successor to System Shock," and that meant nothing to these execs.

(Cue Nelson "Ha-ha.")

To be fair, the other producer was busy developing Vampire Rain.

Have you not read anything about this game? I recommend that you look up the Game Informer article on it.

You said it, the demo is freaking hot!

Good call, 0ldb0y. I agree completely; the concept was probably enough to get some executives' eyes rolling. Plenty of FPS titles have attempted to merge physic powers/magic (in this case plasmids), usually with little success. I was skeptical enough until I played the demo, which proved that the execution, environment, and graphics are top-notch. Well done, 2K.

But...but... System Shock was so BA! I loved that game. Best RPG/FPS ever.

But system shock (and SS2, and SS2.5-aka-DeusEx) all sold pretty poorly. So to be honest, i'm not surprised publishers passed.

Frankly, I'm actually pretty surprised how popular the demo seems to be.. as these sort of games often sell only to very niche audiences. I love them.. but they don't usually sell widely.

I wonder if it is PURELY the graphics that are driving it's hype and popularity? Maybe graphics do matter after all for some genres...

yay for 2K.

file:///C:/DOCUME~1/Justin/LOCALS~1/Temp/moz-screenshot-6.jpg ?

same thing appeared in the 'new games this week' post

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

HEY!!
I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU KIDS TO GET OFF MY HARD DRIVE!

Where's that showing up? The post appears a-ok to me.

it was just showing up as a 'red x' missing image block.

in this post it was "Senior designer RED X Joe McDonagh "

its gone now. oh well

best demo ever. REally.

i agree, really one of the best demos i've ever played.
i could really see it turning nay-sayers into buyers, which is usually a pretty hard feat.

people mock the 360 for having so many FPSers, but this one seems like it would be a great addition to any consoles library.

Grant, absolutely. I didn't really have that much interest in Bioshock until I played the demo last night. I was very impressed and now considering actually picking it up. I thought I was tired of FPS...

Must... wait... for 65nm process...

The HDMI enabled 360s pretty much guarantee that you are getting the version with the giant heatsink, right? I thought that revision is the one that they said will fix the overheating.

I really don't see how an HDMI port would help that.

I'd rather get the 360 with the HDMI port of course, but the ones with the 65nm chip aren't out yet. Expected this fall, I think. Like September or something.

No, what I am saying is that the newer 360s, i.e. the ones with the HDMI port, are supposed to have a giant heatsink on the motherboard. It has nothing to do with HDMI, just that the new batch of 360s supposedly fixed the overheating issues. However, the 65nm might be a bit quieter. Keep in mind, though, the loudest thing about the 360 is the DVD drive...not the fans.

Ooooh. Well in that case I'll probably pick one up in the next couple of weeks :D.

Your Right, The newer 360's with HDMI are the Elites Mobo, with the extra Heat sink in them.
Clearing out to make way for the falcon!

This demo made me go from looks interesting to preorder now - special edition - with next day air shipping

I tried to download the demo today... Twice. Got to 35%, then my useless piece of shit Linksys router decided it was time for it to disconnect me from the internet, this fucked up the WHOLE download and it reset me back to 0%. Second try and at 18%... But got disconnected again so I just shut off the console in frustration. Although it'll kill me, I'll wait until much later or tomorrow morning 'till I retry. Fuck you Linksys, put fucking cooling aids in your god damn routers.

my linksys wireless router drops the connection ALL THE TIME, piece of trash! I would never use a linksys router again

but i am too cheap to buy a new one

heres a fun trick,
try mounting it in any orientation but bottom down.
due to their natural heat dissapation from the top, you'll cook that shit to a crisp.

i found that one out the hard way.

Can you pirate a wireless router?

We used to use a Linksys. Same problem. We CONSTANTLY had to unplug it and plug it back in to get it to start working again. So frustrating.

We use a Belkin now and it pretty much always works fine.

JOYTIP: See if you can't install this on your router -
http://www.dd-wrt.com/

I have a belkin router, and it works decently enough. It *does* drop the connection, but only about once a day. It has become routine to unplug and plug it back in when I get up.

Pirates wore eye patches for night vision.

to everyone thats having problem with their routers...

make sure your internet provider allows you to have many IP addresses, otherwise it will seem you're losing your connection, but it's just limiting your IP addys via the DHCP server.
Turns out comcast only allows you to have 5, which i needed 7. My solution was to clone the MAC address from the PC hardwired to the router, and allow the router to do what it was made to do.

when in doubt, go to the command prompt and:
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

if that resets your connection, it's the problem i list above, if not, your router is a piece of garbage! hooray!

Grant: So you mean set up the router like it comes out of the box? Most people do set it up the way you describe. It's fairly unusual for me to run across someone who's not having the router do NAT, and from a security standpoint it's not really advisable to have the PCs connected directly to the WAN, unless you know what you're doing or really really need those PCs to have public IPs.

Some Linksys routers (WRTP54G) are horrible with wireless out of the box, while some (WRT54GL) are great. A large part of it is firmware so like C. Grant mentioned see if you can load dd-wrt or openwrt onto your existing router.

Here's an idea. Get a wired router. Sure laying out all that Cat5 is a pain in the back-pipe, but at leant you'll know that it won't drop the connection every time the guy next door microwaves some popcorn.

HEY!!
I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU KIDS TO GET OFF MY HARD DRIVE!

IM IN UR HARD DRIVEZ, POSTIN UR DOCUMENTZ

Some people are thinking this is just another fancy FPS. It's not, its an FPS RPG. You can upgrade yourself and stuff. Pretty cool.

Oh noes! First person Dirge of Cerberus!

I bet now they feel stupid.

This goes to the pages of history in the worst turn downs ever.This is after when Nintendo turned down Sony.

I haven't download Bioshock :( (Someone is using my x360 line to play WOW >:| ).I guess I will buy it in 8 days anyway.

Nintendo really didn't turn down Sony. They turned ON Sony. Bastards.

Why they thought they'd have more success on the project with Philips I've got no clue. But, I guess hind sight is always 20/20.

The contract with Sony would have basically meant Sony would own Nintendo games and properties and license fees from third-parties. But breaking the contract could have been handled so much better.

WROOOOOONGG!!!!!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McAeQiLmEYU&mode=related&search=

That was a reply to Captain Jody Anthony XVIII.

Honestly IMO this game is going to SUCK. I have seen the previews and oooh wow it has a little girl who is creepy, and it has really fake weapon upgrades. And there is no sunlight!! SIGN ME UP!

If you think that's all there is to the game, you're a complete imbecile. That, or you have no thumbs and therefore can't play the game, so you wrote that post out of jealousy with your mangled, misshapen stump of a hand.
But I bet you're just stupid.

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Plenty of publishers turned down Bioshock

Reader Comments (57)

Posted: Aug 13th 2007 1:05PM (Unverified) said

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