Shortly after Rod Fergusson himself announced his departure from Diablo IV, it was announced that he would be heading the troubled BioShock 4 team.
Rod Fergusson has previous experience leading a BioShock team; he helped get BioShock Infinite out the door in time back in 2013 after joining the then-Irrational Games in 2012. It appears history will repeat itself, as the former Diablo IV lead has once again returned to the BioShock franchise by joining the struggling BioShock 4 development team at Cloud Chamber. The development team at Cloud Chamber has reportedly suffered from layoffs as a result of the leadership shakeup. Rod Fergusson mentions this in the official staffing announcement on X, where he explains why he joined 2K to finish BioShock 4. That post can be seen below.
According to an email sent out by 2K President, David Ismailer (and reported by IGN), he said, “Work on the next BioShock game has been underway for several years. While we’re excited about the foundational gameplay elements of the project, we’ve made the decision with studio leadership to rework certain aspects that are core to a BioShock game, and in doing so are reducing the size of the development team to focus on this work and give the game more time in development,” regarding the team’s downsizing, which Fergusson echoed in his announcement.
These decisions were made following 2K’s desire and “commitment to deliver the best game in franchise history.” The shake-up at Cloud Chamber occurred after Bloomberg reported earlier this month that BioShock 4 had suffered a setback, and the leadership change was made after a recent negative internal review. Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick, claims BioShock 4 won’t be cancelled, quite the contrary. “It’s going to come out,” he said, adding, “That I can say hand on heart, without question.”
While BioShock 4 is still in active development and is promised to arrive, it still appears that it will be a while before anything else is revealed regarding the fourth installment of the franchise.
