14 DAY TRIAL // The announcement that BioShock Infinite is to be delayed to February 2013 has coincided with a new position opening up at developer Irrational Games, which suggests that the company has big plans for the multiplayer side of the game and needs more time and more talent to implement them.
The job ad says, “The BioShock Infinite team bets big on everything we do – we strive to be careful about the problems we tackle, innovative in our approach, solid in our implementation, and we polish the heck out of everything we do. Networking is no exception.”
It adds, “Right now we’re looking for an talented and experience individual to help us with the networking aspects of BioShock Infinite. This position will require a combination of initiative, leadership, design, coding, and daily problem solving on multiple target platforms.”
The developer who will get the Irrational Games job needs to have shipped at least one other commercial game with a multiplayer component on a home console and will work with the network team in order to create mechanics for in-game updates, stat tracking, matchmaking and more.
The developers at Irrational Games have already said that they have been considering adding multiplayer to their BioShock titles since 2010, but they have made no official announcements about the potential modes for Infinite.
The world of the new game, the flying island of Columbia, is wrecked by civil war between two powerful factions and that could offer a solid base for multiplayer modes, allowing gamers to customize their own characters and then join large scale engagements that use the same maps as the single player content.
The story of BioShock Infinite will give gamers the role of Booker DeWitt, an ex-detective who explores Columbia in order to save a girl named Elizabeth, who has the potential to open portals to alternate realities.
BioShock Infinite will be launched on February 26, 2013 on the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.