Video game news: New Bioshock in 2020? Reliable game analyst says "yes"

Despite the first three games being both commercial and critical successes, we haven't seen a new game in the Bioshock franchise in.... *looks at paper*.... geez, six years? Man, I'm old. Anyhoo, with the closure of Irrational Games, the studio behind the titles, in 2017, it would seem that Bioshock Infinite would be the last time we'd travel to a strange world via lighthouse in the middle of the ocean.

If games industry analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities is correct, however, we could be seeing a new game sometime next year.

Pachter, who last year successfully predicted that Call of Duty: Black Ops IV would feature a Battle Royale mode, made the prediction in gamesindustry.biz's annual prediction article. He also predicted that the aforementioned Black Ops IV mode, Black Out, would eventually be made a free-to-play game (as will Overwatch), as well as a new game announcement from Rockstar.

While the prediction of a new Bioshock title isn't exactly going out on a limb - reports of 2K commissioning a "top-secret" development studio to work on the game as far back as nine months ago - predicting that it'll be released as soon as next year is a whole other matter. Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has straight up said that there was going to be another Bioshock game, so there's that.

As for when this new title will be officially announced and what platforms it'll be playable on, that remains to be seen. E3 2019 seems pretty likely, but who knows? I sure don't. I also don't know who this "top secret" studio is, although the lead developer on the first three Bioshock games, Ken Levine, is currently head of Ghost Story Games - but whether or not his studio has any interest in working on a game of that style remains to be seen.

When we know more, you'll know more.