It’s been a hot minute since we’ve heard anything about the next Bioshock game, which 2K confirmed was in development all the way back in 2019 at the then-newly formed Cloud Chamber studio. l43m
And while we still haven’t seen anything official from the game, an in-development screenshot looks to have surfaced online that gives us our very first, tiny glimpse at what the game might look like.
The screenshot, which has been found and shared by gaming outlet MP1st, comes from a Visual Effects Artist at the company, who seemingly shared the image online as part of a demo reel dated back to 2021. You can see it below:
Despite the fact that it’s probably far outdated, there are a few interesting things we can glean from the image. The obvious one is the big structure in the middle with what looks like a giant ball of flame lighting it up, and may or may not be a new take on the idea of a “lighthouse,” we can see the character is holding a weapon called the “Ricochet Shotgun” and we can also see a new UI for abilities.
Importantly, the image contains multiple references to “Parkside,” which is long believed to have been the codename for the game, as shared by Jason Schreier and podcaster Colin Moriarty in the past. Back in 2021, Moriarty revealed that he’d learned of the new Bioshock game’s setting and time period – namely a fictional Antarctic City in the 1960s. He claimed that the game will be tied to the series’ previous titles narratively and that Cloud Chamber was targeting a 2022 release at the time.
“It takes place in a 1960s Antarctic city called Borealis. [The game is] codenamed ‘Parkside’… I’ve been told that the development team has incredible latitude to get it right. That seems and sounds right to me,” says Moriarty.
Of course, until 2K or Cloud Chamber says anything on the record, we don’t know the legitimacy or relevance of this rogue screenshot, but it’s exciting to potentially be looking at the game in some form all these years later.