Joystiq

Ken Levine's role in BioShock 2 not 'material'

Justin McElroy — 2008-09-16T15:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, First Person Shooters

Besides working on "Super Secret Project That We're Dying to Find Out About X," Ken Levine also has an involvement of some sort with the follow-up to his hit BioShock, as well as the upcoming film based on the license. Heart-breakingly, he recently told OXM his work with BioShock 2 isn't really "material," that he's only "informally engaged in certain scenes."

His involvement with the film is even harder to pin down. Levine said, "My job there is to be a friend to [director] Gore [Verbinski] and [writer] John [Logan], be a resource for them and kick ideas around with them. At the end of the day John's the writer and Gore's the director. I'm not the traffic cop."

...Umm, if KennyL is hiring himself out as a friend, shouldn't we have been his first choice? Or at least been allowed to make an offer? We think he would have found our salary of numerous hugs and adoring stares very competitive.

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Levine contract could include royalties from BioShock sequels

Ross Miller — 2008-07-10T16:55:00+00:00

Ken Levine may be entering the upper echelon of game designers. According to a source from The New York Post, the BioShock creator is renegotiating his contract with Take-Two to allow more creative control over his projects and - this is the key - royalties (here called "points") "based on how much business the next installment of 'BioShock' and any other games that he develops produce."

Given we don't know exactly to what extent Levine will be working on BioShock sequels, if at all, it's pretty interesting to hear that Levine could be given royalties for a creating a concept, even without working on a project directly. As noted by Variety, we'd only imagine a few notable game icons with this much weight (e.g. Sid Meier, Will Wright).

This is all rumor at the moment, as neither Take Two's people or Levine's people are talking, but we're watching the re-negotiating (as are apparently the tabloids) closely.

[Via The Cut Scene]

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BioShock 'pimp supreme' Ken Levine to keynote PAX 2008

Jason Dobson — 2008-05-19T07:40:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, First Person Shooters

With just a handful of months to go before the annual Penny Arcade Expo opens its doors again, you may be wondering who will be taking to the stage to the deliver the August event's keynote address. Organizers have announced that the opening speech will be given by none other than 2K Boston president and creative director Ken Levine.

Says Penny Arcade business mastermind, "Obviously, Ken is pimp supreme...We're super excited to have him open up the show." Given Levine's involvement with one of last year's biggest releases as well as a sequel that already ranks among our most anticipated in 2009, we're sure he'll have plenty to talk about -- and we expect to be left hanging on every word.

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Ken Levine will be involved with BioShock 2

Justin McElroy — 2008-03-12T09:05:00+00:00

We got this information from yesterday's Take Two earnings call, but we wanted to break it out just to make sure you BioShock fans out there could get some sleep tonight. Chairman Strauss Zelnick stated during the call that series creator Ken Levine "will be working on BioShock 2."

Now, it remains to be seen whether he'll be working on the game or just sending encouraging email forwards about angels and pictures of cats hanging on branches to the 2K Marin team doing the bulk of the work. As gigantic, total, militant fans of BioShock, we certainly hope it's the former.

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BioShock 2 due in fiscal Q4 2009 from 2K Marin

Justin McElroy — 2008-03-11T16:40:00+00:00

Filed under: First Person Shooters

After sales of brainy first-person shooter BioShock were so strong, a sequel seemed like all but a foregone conclusion. 2K Games put any remaining doubt to bed today, revealing that BioShock 2 is due to hit shelves in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2009, which would put it between August and October of 2009. The game is being developed not by Ken Levine's 2K Boston, but rather 2K Marin, which reportedly has some BioShock staffers on board. At this point, we don't know what (if any) involvement Levine will have, nor do we know what systems it will be on.

The info came in an investor relations report released by the company today. Even though we figured the game was in the works, we have to admit we're a little surprised by the window, just two years after its predecessor. But you're not going to hear us complaining. If it means more Big Daddies and Little Sisters, we don't really care where we get it.

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