Last month, 2K Games United Kingdom teased a new project involving the BioShock franchise on Twitter with the picture above. Speculation ran rampant about what the image could possibly mean, especially in light of the recent closure of Irrational Studios. Well, 2K Games officially revealed what the teaser meant today, as the company announced that the award-winning shooter will be coming to the iPhone and iPad later this year.
Coming from the team at 2K China, which was the same team that ported the excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown to iOS, this version of BioShock is essentially the full version of the title, minus some visual flair. The port will support both touch controls and full controller support, which sounds like a much easier way to play through the campaign. A digital version of the title’s artbook will also be included with the port.
2K China production assistant Ben Holschuh explained why the company decided to take on the task of making BioShock work on iOS platforms.
“BioShock was such a huge game back when it released. With more and more people having iPads and iPhones and using that as their core gaming device, there has been a lot more demand lately for some more core experiences. BioShock seemed to make a lot of sense.”
I say this over and over again, but I’m constantly impressed by what developers are able to do with mobile platforms. Whether it be excellent mobile only experiences (Monument Valley) or impressive ports of last-gen titles (the aforementioned XCOM), the mobile platform is only continuing to grow as a gaming platform.
BioShock for iOS is set to be released later this summer, so expect specific release date information to surface soon. The port currently does not have a price set, but expect it to cost around the same as other similar premium iOS titles.