GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

BioShock 2 revealed, Borderlands, Midnight Club: LA delayed

2K Marin developing follow-up to undersea adventure under Ken Levine's supervision; postapocalyptic and urban-auto action games pushed back to later in the year; 2K Boston working on new IP.

311 Comments

Along with better-than-expected-but-still-unprofitable earnings, Take-Two Interactive had both bad and good news to deliver to gamers today. First, the good: As had been rumored for months, 2K Marin is now officially developing a sequel to BioShock, the award-winning action adventure title from the studios formerly collectively known as Irrational Games.

Inventively titled BioShock 2, the game will be released during the fourth quarter of Take-Two's 2009 financial year. That means the game would arrive sometime between August 1 and October 31, 2009, on unspecified platforms. The first BioShock was released on August 25, 2007 for the Xbox 360 and PC, and has gone on to sell over 2 million copies worldwide.

Speaking with an analyst in a postearnings conference call, Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick confirmed that Ken Levine, head of former Irrational studios 2K Boston and 2K Australia, would be involved with the project--as well as an all-new mystery game. "Ken is a terrific asset to the company, brilliant game designer," reassured Zelnick. He also reconfirmed Levine is working on "a new IP."

Now, the bad news: Borderlands, the ambitious open-world, postapocalyptic driving/shooting game from Gearbox Software, has been delayed. Originally slated for release during the August-October 2008 quarter, the game will now arrive sometime during Take-Two's FY '09--meaning it could conceivably arrive before the end of the 2008 calendar year on the PlayStation 3, 360, and PC.

According to a statement from Take-Two, the Borderland delay was "in order to allow additional development time for this highly anticipated game and provide a better balance in the release of Take-Two's triple-A titles."

Also postponed today was Midnight Club: Los Angeles, the forthcoming PS3 and 360 street racer from Rockstar San Diego. Now, instead of its previously scheduled "early 2008" release, the game will now arrive during the August-October quarter of this year.

"Midnight Club: Los Angeles was initially planned for release this spring," Take-Two CFO Lainie Goldstein said in a postearnings conference call. "We moved the title to the 4th quarter to leverage the retail strength leading to the key holiday selling season, and in order to provide some distance from the release of Grand Theft Auto IV."

Rockstar Games' GTAIV, easily Take-Two's biggest title of the year, is now slated for an April 29 release on the 360 and PS3. It had been first set for release in mid-October 2007, but was pushed back after multiconsole development proved more difficult than anticipated.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Join the conversation
There are 311 comments about this story