BioShock Studio Faces Layoffs, Now Led By Ex-Diablo Boss Rod Fergusson

The BioShock series is like the Kennedys of video games; it appears to be cursed with bad luck. Despite being one of the best-selling franchises in video game history, BioShock’s team, Cloud Chamber, is currently undergoing management rearrangements and layoffs after a series of stalls in development.
Cloud Chamber is a California- and Quebec-based studio owned by Take-Two Interactive. The studio was founded in 2019, two years after the original developer of the BioShock series, Irrational Games, was shut down.
The newest installment, BioShock 4, has been in development since 2019, though little has been revealed about the title since its announcement. At the start of August, the game failed a review by executives at 2K Games, resulting in the firing of studio head Kelley Gilmore and the repositioning of creative director Hogarth de la Plante to a publishing role. At the time, Cloud Chamber staff worried that layoffs would follow. Today this was confirmed.
In a Bluesky post, Jason Schreier reported “an unspecified number of staff” would be laid off from the studio. Moreover, Rod Fergusson, former boss of Diablo IV, has been appointed as the new head of Cloud Chamber.
Back in 2012, Fergusson joined Irrational Games to help get BioShock Infinite out the door. This solidified Fergusson’s reputation as a “closer” for games struggling to reach the finish line. Now, he is tasked with overseeing the completion of the series’ next installment, which will entail overhauls to the game’s narrative and, unfortunately, team downsizing. Fergusson will also be in charge of series expansions like the BioShock movie spin-off currently in production at Netflix.
Here is the email sent to Cloud Chamber staff by 2K Games president David Ismailer, according to Kotaku: