Fri, May 07, 2010 | 17:07 BST
BioShock was both a “blessing and a curse” for sequel, says 2K
2K’s vice president of marketing, Matt Gorman, and marketing director Tom Bass, stated during an interview that because of the massive success of BioShock, the team felt pressure trying to convince the public it needed to revisit Rapture.
Speaking with the[a]listdaily, Bass told the site that the success of the first outing was both a “blessing and a curse” for BioShock 2.
“One of the main things that was ‘a blessing and a curse’ was BioShock 1,” he said. “You had many scores that were 100 and you had a lot of people who felt it was a contained, finite experience.
“So you had hardcore fans that weren’t convinced that they needed a sequel and here we were two years later with BioShock 2. There were also people that never got on board and it was a challenge to detail to them they don’t have to play the first to enjoy the second.
“It wasn’t a given our fanbase would buy this, just like there’s no guarantee that those who buy Modern Warfare would buy Modern Warfare 2.
“So we had campaigns for the hardcore and we had one for those who weren’t fans, with the understanding that the same message would not work for everyone.”
Apparently, it worked, because BioShock 2 has shipped 3 million units worldwide as of March, and while not has highly lauded as its predecessor, it’s still gotten good reviews overall.
Via Industry Gamers.
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Posted in: 2K, Action, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tags: bioshock, bioshock 2, marketing, Matt Gorman, Tom Bass
9 comments
#1
Gekidami
07/05/10, 5:12 pm
They were so unsure of the sequels sucess that they went ahead and announced 5 of them?
#2
Stephany Nunneley
07/05/10, 5:13 pm
#3
Bulk Slash
07/05/10, 5:26 pm
There was nothing wrong with the idea of doing a second Bioshock game, and I think most gamers would have been excited by the prospect.
Where they went wrong was in re-using Rapture again instead of showing some actual artistic spark and creating somewhere new that was as original and compelling as Rapture. Making the player a lumbering, characterless Big Daddy was also a mistake.
#4
AliTheBrit19
07/05/10, 5:37 pm
I really enjoyed BioShock 2, an excellent sequel if you ask me, true it wasn’t really needed but I’m glad it was made.
#5
Erthazus
07/05/10, 5:40 pm
I liked first game more.
for me Bioshock 2 is more like an excellent copy paste of the first game. I really didn’t feel that it has something to do with the second installment.
#6
Boris Fett
07/05/10, 6:41 pm
“The team felt pressure trying to convince the public it needed to revisit Rapture.”
Which turned out to be true. We didn’t need to.
#7
hitnrun
07/05/10, 7:32 pm
I was disappointed with Bioshock 2 for a number of reasons. One is that Boris Fett above is right. There was no reason to bring us back to Rapture except marketing.
And that’s exactly how it was used: Youtube teasers telling us we had “just scratched the surface of Rapture,” when actually we had excavated and gutted the damn place in the first game, leaving it to its watery death, which seemed pretty imminent considering the flooding.
Another is that the plot was disappointing. Not to spoil anyone, but it had this JK Rowling/Hideo Kojima/Empire Strikes Back/Bioshock 1 type build up, like there was something going on…and then nothing happens. Oh, also, the last 2 hours of the game was a complete waste of time because it ends the same way it would have if you set Eleanor free and keeled over.
#8
Freek
07/05/10, 8:07 pm
Loved the first one, diden’t buy the second one.
#9
Hunam
07/05/10, 8:14 pm
The first one was great till the last 3rd, which sucked, the second one was boring until the last 3rd, then it owned.