14 DAY TRIAL // A staffer inside the 2K Australia development studio has told MCV Pacific that the team is working with Irrational Games on the development of BioShock Infinite, the action adventure game that is set on the floating island of Columbia.
2K Australia has some experience with the BioShock series, having previously worked on the second game in the series with 2K Marin, a studio that had development team both in Australia and in California.
BioShock 2 was created without any direct input from series creator Ken Levine and fans of the franchise see it as the lesser of the two installments, but the game managed to polish some gameplay mechanics and deliver a solid story, if a little uninspired.
2K Australia has also delivered some work for the upcoming remake of XCOM, again working with 2K Marin.
The studio has had a rather tumultuous history, being initially created as a subsidiary of Irrational Games, then becoming 2K Australia before being integrated in 2K Marin and then again becoming independent.
BioShock Infinite leaves the underwater Rapture and takes to the sky, with players taking on the role of a seasoned detective who must find and then escape Columbia with a girl called Elizabeth.
She is gifted with some pretty impressive powers, including the ability to open up portals that seem to be moving to alternate realities.
Ken Levine, the leader of Irrational Games, has said that he is fully in charge of development for Infinite and that he plans to create a game that has a solid gameplay core that will be instantly recognizable to fans while also adding some new mechanics. It’s not clear what role 2K Australia is playing in the development process.
BioShock Infinite will be launched on the PlayStation 3 from Sony, Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PC at some point during 2012.