BioShock Infinite delayed to 2013

BioShock Infinite won't be shown at E3 this year, and has been delayed until 2013, according to Irrational's Ken Levine.

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BioShock Infinite is going through some "tweaks and improvements," according to Irrational's Ken Levine, forcing the company's upcoming shooter into a Q1 2013 release. Oh, and don't plan on reading about it from E3 or GamesCom, either.

In a note to fans on the Irrational site, Levine said the size and scope of the game forced them to delay the game until Feb. 26 of next year:

We had a similar experience with the original BioShock, which was delayed several months as our original ship date drew near. Why? Because the Big Daddies weren't the Big Daddies you've since come to know and love. Because Andrew Ryan's golf club didn't have exactly the right swing. Because Rapture needed one more coat of grimy Art Deco.

Levine said they plan to use the time they would normally be preparing for upcoming conventions to refine the game so the next time it is shown, it will be "essentially the product we intend to put in the box."

We already knew that Irrational was staying focused on the main game and trying to avoid distractions, but if delaying it a few months will make it play like the originals, then the added wait will be forgotten quickly.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 9, 2012 5:40 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, BioShock Infinite delayed to 2013.

    BioShock Infinite won't be shown at E3 this year, and has been delayed until 2013, according to Irrational's Ken Levine.

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      May 9, 2012 5:43 AM

      Cleavage rendering needed more work

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      May 9, 2012 5:46 AM

      Actually this is a good thing. With all this Diablo 3 going on I was hardly going to have time.

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      May 9, 2012 5:47 AM

      Best to say it now particularly if they were going to show at E3, than later.

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      May 9, 2012 6:01 AM

      With all these delays this is really shaping up to be a year of nothing but Diablo 3.

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      May 9, 2012 7:24 AM

      They probably intend to run a Kickstarter for it.

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      May 9, 2012 7:31 AM

      The original played like crap -- at least from the perspective of being a shooter.

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        May 9, 2012 4:03 PM

        Agreed; the real heart of the game was in its visual style and narrative. As a pure shooter, it's forgettable, and the PC version doesn't hold up, with terrible mouselag (not even the patch fixed all of the jankiness in the mouse acceleration problems) and low-framerate animations (if you didn't have a PhysX card, you had 5 FPS object physics; I haven't played the game since 2009, so I don't know if my current card and drivers would enable PhysX). The character models were also very rudimentary, in terms of animation, and anatomical detail (they all looked like low-res dolls that were hand-animated untill they ragdolled in 5 FPS).

        The thing that worried me most about the past couple of gameplay videos was how the look movement and combat rhythm seemed to look EXACTLY like Bioshock 1. I'm hoping that they've used time in the past to clean this up, and/or are using this delay to make it more responsive for mouselook, and more satisfying to shoot stuff.

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      May 9, 2012 9:27 AM

      Bioshock Infinite delay is most likely for two reasons. The first is so Irrational Games can polish the game (as their statement said). The second, and most likely more important, is so Take Two can clear their fall release schedule after Borderlands 2 to announce the release of GTA V this holiday season.

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        May 9, 2012 3:53 PM

        Or three, as is more often the case, it simply isn't ready. Which is fine. I want it to get the time it deserves, but it kind of annoys me that so often when companies go for this "It's extra time to make it even more awesome!" line, they really mean "It just ain't done yet, sorry!".

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      May 9, 2012 9:47 AM

      Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

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      May 9, 2012 9:47 AM

      They announced this game in 2010 for a 2012 release and they're delaying it! Why announce it so early?

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      May 9, 2012 10:01 AM

      Damn. Was looking forward to this one.

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      May 9, 2012 12:03 PM

      I'm kinda surprised that Levine would let this one slip. From my understanding it's supposed to be his shot at neo-cons like Bioshock was his shot at Rand and capitalism.

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      May 9, 2012 4:00 PM

      [insert "infinite development time" joke here]

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      May 9, 2012 4:02 PM

      [deleted]

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      May 9, 2012 4:21 PM

      /sad face

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      May 9, 2012 4:27 PM

      "Infinite" is one of those words, like "forever" that seems to go hand in hand with delays

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