Earlier this month, Diablo 4 general manager and the lead of Blizzard's Diablo team, Rod Fergusson, announced he was leaving the studio. The post on X (Twitter) came out of the blue, and nobody knew why he'd left or who would replace him. Now we have an answer to one of those questions, as he today announced that he has returned to 2K as the head of the Bioshock franchise. While that may sound like a dream job to many, the series and studio as a whole are in difficult spots at present, meaning that Fergusson has a big job on his hands.
In his post announcing his new role, Fergusson, who was previously an executive on Bioshock Infinite, made sure to recognize that the "studio restructuring is a difficult time for the team." While it's unclear how many developers have been impacted by the layoffs, 2K is clearly unhappy with the recent direction of the Bioshock franchise. Bioshock 4, or whatever it will eventually be called, has been in development since 2018 and players have had few signs it's even alive, so who knows what state it's in.
Fergusson is now at the helm of Cloud Chamber, the developer working on the next Bioshock game. While the hope is that it'll join the best FPS games pantheon, its troubled development is worrying.
You can read more about that development here, courtesy of Bloomberg's reporting. However, Fergusson is in charge of more than just games. He will also oversee the in-development Netflix movie, presumably as well as other extensions of the franchise that come to pass.
Finally, Fergusson makes an appeal to all the players eagerly anticipating information about the next Bioshock game. "I'm committed to building a Bioshock game we'll be proud of and that our players will love," he says. While we don't expect news any time soon, player expectations will be sky high after such an extended development cycle.
While you wait, try out one of the other best singleplayer games for a similar hit. You've got plenty of time to upgrade to the best gaming monitor, though, so you'll have no excuse for grainy image quality by the time Bioshock 4 arrives.
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