Bioshock 2 timed exclusive?

Last August saw the release of Bioshock on Xbox 360 and PC. Bioshock was a game that gained much attention due to its beautiful visuals, great first person physics and controversial killing/harvesting of little girls. The game picked up dozens Game of the Year awards and sold millions of copies for Xbox 360 and PC. A year later, after a timed exclusivity contract ran out, the game was finally released on Sony’s Playstation 3. Now that Bioshock is available on 360, PC and PS3 many would expect that the sequel that was previously announced to be released on all three platforms at the same time next year right? Well maybe not.

While Take Two revealed its product line up for fiscal 2009, (which is to the end of October 2009 by the way) they revealed the “surprising” sequel to Bioshock called Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams, but what they didn’t announce was a platform. Now this has caused a bit of a stir on the internet as one might have foreseen. Why, after finally appearing on all three major platforms, is it still “Platform: TBA”? Some kind of timed exclusivity again? Well that’s what some websites are saying and it’s not for the platform you may think, some people are actually whispering that Bioshock 2 could actually be a timed exclusive for the Playstation 3. People are claiming that Sony could actually be paying for the marketing that will keep it exclusive to their platform for a short period of time. This doesn’t make much sense though, first of all Sony once stated that they don’t pay for exclusives right? Second of all, Bioshock hasn’t really set the world alight on PS3, with latest figures showing that Bioshock 360 is selling just as well as the PS3 version.

So why would Take 2 risk millions of sales on Xbox 360 for PS3 timed exclusivity? It was a wise move for them to get into a deal with Microsoft with the original, a brand new IP, without the reassurance of making their money back it seemed right to go timed exclusive with the extra money from Microsoft. But now that it has cemented itself as a great game there is no need to make it exclusive. Take 2 needs all the money it can get so it makes no financial sense to make it available only on one platform, especially when that platform is where it has had the weakest sales. We have this down as simultaneous release on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC…Win-win for everybody.

TGR Rating: Rumor Killed