Bioshock Wasn’t Popular With Publishers

August 13th, 2007 Posted in Action, FPS, PC, Xbox 360

You would think that Bioshock, a game which is so massively popular with the public and press, Bioshock would have had no problems getting a publisher. Surprisingly, it turns out that the opposite is true. Bioshock’s senior designer, Joe McDonagh, said that the lack of commercial success caused plenty of publishers to turn Bioshock down, and that this sort of lack of risk taking is damaging the industry.

“This sort of attitude really pissed me off. System Shock II, for all its critical success, didn’t sell very well which turned buyers off. Something I realised very quickly was that as much as your boss won’t ever know that you turned down a future game of the year, he will know that you signed up a turkey. You don’t get fired for not taking risks. That kind of mentality is driving the industry into a creative cul de sac.”

McDonagh also said that when he was pitching it to publishers, there was a lack of interest because it was another PC shooter, and sometimes there was even hostility towards the game.

“I remember pitching the game to one publisher who later told a friend of mine that it was ‘just another f***ing PC FPS that’s going to sell 250,000 units.”

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 11:45 am and is filed under Action, FPS, PC, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Bioshock Wasn’t Popular With Publishers”

  1. Anuban Says:

    August 13th, 2007 at 4:45 pm

    There are going to be a lot of ticked off publishers who had the chance to make some big bucks … I bet some folks are going to lose their jobs over this if they already haven’t. That is so good for those devs .. they didn’t get mad they got even by doing such a great job. That may be another underlying reason we won’t see a PS3 version.



  2. Evander Says:

    August 14th, 2007 at 6:12 am

    I wonder if these publishers are listening to all the crap that FPS games are the reason for all the violence and blah blah blah…
    Some could even be paid off, who knows?

    “Creative cul de sac”- With so many games coming out this holiday season and more great titles next year, this seems to be fixing itself.

    I’ve always heard good things about 2K Games, they seem to fit right along side Rockstar and Capcom.



  3. Josh B. Says:

    August 14th, 2007 at 5:53 pm

    Haha, suits and their statistics! They always know better than the public about what is good and what is garbage. Well done to 2K Games for taking up BioShock I hope it sells like hot cakes, I know I’ll be buying it.



  4. jw Says:

    August 14th, 2007 at 9:01 pm

    hahah they missed out i have played the 360 demo through four times already



Leave a Reply