BioShock Vita still possible but 'in the hands of business people'

The oft-rumored PlayStation Vita BioShock game remains a possibility, but its fate is in the hands of "business people," Ken Levine, BioShock Infinite's creative director, told IGN.

"That is in the hands of business people right now," Levine said. "It's something I'm still interested in, and people ask me that all the time. Right now I'm just sort of waiting to see what the business people come up with, and that's sort of out of my hands at this point. That's something that I think has a lot of potential. The game idea we have has a lot of potential. It's just a question of [if] their stars all align."

"The game idea we have has a lot of potential. It's just a question of [if] their stars all align."

Levine has long expressed interest in developing a BioShock game for the Vita, even mentioning it on stage at E3 2011. In a post-E3 interview with IGN, Levine said BioShock on Vita would be "a new game," not just a port of Irrational Games' original. In October 2011, Levine told Joystiq that the game was "still sort of in the paper design stage."

This August, two senior staffers left Irrational Games, followed by two developers, who departed in October. Also in August, Gears of War producer Rod Fergusson left Epic Games to fill Irrational's vacant director of product development slot.

For more on the future of the BioShock universe, be sure to check out our impressions of BioShock Infinite, which we played at a recent event. Irrational's next installment in the series was recently delayed to March 26, 2013 to allow more time for polish and bug fixes. The game is planned for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC.

PlayStation Plus members itching for more in the world of Rapture can download BioShock 2, the sequel developed by 2K Marin, for free this month.