I love how people blame this on Levine. Sure, he’s ruthless for firing most of his staff, but considering how badly Bioshock failed to meet expectations, it was to be expected. You think any sane businessman is going to keep doing the same thing when the profit trend points downward?
And I agree with the minority opinion here. “Bioshlock” sucked from its inception. Apart from art, there was nothing interesting about it. Even then, its art style was an acquired taste. Cartoony, Comic-book like. That got old quickly as well.
No 2 ways about it. The game sucked, the franchise was being rehashed over and over with no improvement in profitability or bottom line. Result: Bye bye staff. I need to move onto something else. There’s nothing “special” or unique about Levine at all. He’s a typical head of a major game development company.