'BioShock Infinity' sequel returning as a permanent franchise [release date, gameplay, trailer, spoilers]

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Launched in March 2013, "BioShock Infinite" arrived at Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms and gained a massive following. The game was developed by Irrational Games and directed by Ken Levine and received highly positive reviews from various gaming publications. Its fate, however, became questionable when Levine announced that he was shutting down the 17-year-old company.

"I am winding down Irrational Games as you know it. I’ll be starting a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two," Levine announced via Irrational Games' website. While Levine called the game development company "the defining project of my professional life", he explained that he will be forming another company with 15 members of the Irrational Games crew with the goal of creating "narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable. To foster the most direct relationship with our fans possible, we will focus exclusively on content delivered digitally."

To date, Take-Two is credited with several successful series such as Grand Theft Auto, the Midnight Club racing series, and the Manhunt series.

Entertainment Weekly reports that although the game hasn't seen any developments since the "BioShock Infinite" release in 2013, the award-winning series will see a sequel in the near future.

A few months after Irrational Games was shut down, Take-Two's CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke out about the future of BioShock as a franchise. According to PC Gamer, the CEO commented, "We haven't given any color on how you should think about [BioShock's future] yet except we do believe it's beloved. We think it's important [and] certainly something that we're focused on."

Zelnick recently made an appearance at the MKM Partners Investor Day conference, where he confirmed, "BioShock is unquestionably a permanent franchise for our company and one that we do believe in."

He also explained that the BioShock franchise is currently being handled by 2K Games, a collaboration between several studios, along with 2K Marin, which developed BioShock 2.

"The franchise is in the hands of 2K," Zelnick said, as per Gamespot. "They'll make announcements in due time about any upcoming releases."

Zelnick also shared that they are happy to be collaborating with Levine, saying, "I'm not going to steal Ken's thunder, but we're thrilled to be in business with Ken. What I can say is you would expect that Ken would work on something highly creative and innovative. I think that would be a reasonable expectation for whatever he does next."