Strauss Zelnick Promises BioShock 4 — 'Great Is the New Great' Raises Eyebrows

6 minutes Julian Haag

Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick says BioShock 4 is still coming, but his curious line that “great is the new great” set off a wave of raised eyebrows across the community. In this piece, we unpack what that soundbite really signals about blockbuster expectations, why the bar for AAA has crept skyward, and what “true to the BioShock DNA” could and should mean for the next entry.

The state of BioShock 4: cautious confidence The headline is straightforward: the next BioShock is alive, and the publisher is publicly confident it will ship. Cloud Chamber is steering the project, and the messaging is that the team wants to honor what made BioShock special while moving the series forward in a meaningful way. That’s a tall order. Few franchises carry the weight of a debut that redefined atmosphere and worldbuilding, followed by a sequel with some of the sharpest systemic combat of its era, and then a game that dared to go somewhere completely different.

That pressure isn’t just external. Reports have suggested internal turbulence, changing leadership, and narrative reworks. None of that is unusual at the scale BioShock operates. Long pre-production cycles, big creative turns, and course corrections are table stakes for AAA projects. It’s not comforting when you’re waiting for a trailer, but it’s often healthier than forcing a team to ship a vision they don’t believe in.

Decoding “great is the new great” So what do we do with “great is the new great”? Corporate speak can feel like word salad, but if you tilt your head the right way, there’s a point: the middle of the market is shrinking. With an endless buffet of good games, players naturally gravitate toward the few that feel unmissable. The new “cost of entry” for mindshare isn’t competent; it’s must-play.

That logic tracks, but there’s a catch. If you set “exceptional” as the baseline for everything, you risk choking projects with scope, revisions, and self-imposed perfectionism. “Aim for great” is healthy; “everything must be a masterpiece” can be paralyzing. In other words, “great is the new great” is less a standard and more a warning: greatness has to be earned with focus, not promised with slogans.

Why big games take longer now The average blockbuster today contends with:

  • Technical complexity: rendering tech, streaming worlds, cross-platform targets, and a never-ending pile of certification and compliance.
  • Sophisticated systems: progression, builds, AI, accessibility, photo modes, difficulty options, performance modes, and quality-of-life expectations.
  • Rising player expectations: day-one stability, robust content, smart writing, and updates that respect time and wallets.

That’s not an excuse to miss timelines; it’s a reality check for why “good enough” doesn’t feel good enough. If BioShock 4 is revisiting fundamentals like story structure or encounter design midstream, it’s probably because the team wants those pillars to support the whole game, not just its marketing beat.

The BioShock DNA, updated “True to BioShock” shouldn’t mean re-skinning Rapture or Columbia. It means:

  • Place as character: a setting with an ideology that seeps into every corridor, every poster, every whisper in the vents.
  • Moral tension without a pop-up: choices that shape play and tone, not just endings.
  • Tools with teeth: powers and weapons that interact in systemic ways, letting players experiment, break encounters, and tell their own stories.
  • Environmental storytelling: audio logs and notes are fine, but the environment itself should carry the lore.
  • A viewpoint worth arguing about: BioShock works when it invites debate and avoids tidy answers.

Updating that for a modern audience also means better AI that reacts to player improvisation, difficulty curves that respect both tinkerers and tourists, and performance options that don’t make PC players feel like afterthoughts. If Cloud Chamber nails the interplay between buildcraft and level design, the fourth game can stand on its own without living in the shadow of what came before.

A reasonable wishlist Here’s what would make BioShock 4 feel both familiar and fresh:

  • Systems-first combat: let fire, ice, electricity, and gadgets meaningfully combine with level hazards to produce emergent chaos.
  • Smarter enemies and allies: fewer bullet sponges, more behaviors that surprise and challenge without cheating.
  • Elegant progression: upgrades that push distinctive playstyles instead of just bigger numbers.
  • A city with a point of view: somewhere new, visually striking, and philosophically loaded, with factions that aren’t cartoons.
  • Respect for time: checkpoints that don’t punish experimentation, and a campaign that values density over bloat.
  • Accessibility and PC love: robust options, keybind freedom, and optimization that sings across hardware.
  • Post-launch clarity: updates that prioritize stability, bug fixes, and thoughtful additions over aggressive monetization.

The paradox of “exceptional” The promise that “everything will be exceptional” often collides with two brick walls: scope and schedule. The way through is to define what “exceptional” actually means early and make trade-offs that protect it. If the heart of BioShock is systemic combat inside a charged, ideologically coherent space, then ship with the tightest levels and best encounter design you can make, even if it means trimming features that don’t reinforce that core.

In practical terms:

  • Protect the pillars: atmosphere, systems, narrative tension.
  • Cut distractions: anything that bloats hours without deepening those pillars.
  • Be transparent when it’s time: show real gameplay when it reflects the game’s identity, not just a vertical slice.

Why the phrasing still matters Gamers are fluent in hype, and many of us have grown allergic to overblown superlatives. When leadership leans on catchphrases, it can obscure the human effort happening inside a studio. The better story is the unsexy one: iteration, failed ideas, rewritten scenes, and a lot of playtesting. If BioShock 4 emerges from that grind with a strong sense of self, nobody will care what the tagline was. If it doesn’t, no soundbite will save it.

Final thoughts Zelnick’s reassurance is welcome. The awkward phrasing is noise. What matters is whether BioShock 4 captures the feeling of stepping into a place that shouldn’t exist, arming yourself with impossible tools, and wrestling with ideas that refuse to sit quietly. If Cloud Chamber can deliver that, “great is the new great” will fade into the background, and we’ll be busy arguing about level routes, build synergies, and a finale that keeps us talking long after the credits. Let them cook—and let the game speak for itself when it’s ready.