Rod Fergusson joins 2K’s Cloud Chamber as head of BioShock franchise

Rod Fergusson, who recently announced he has left Blizzard Entertainment after five years, has joined 2K development subsidiary Cloud Chamber as the new head of the BioShock franchise, he announced today.

“Would you kindly allow me to share some news?” Fergusson said. “Some of you guessed it, I’m returning to 2K to lead a series that means a lot to me as the new head of the BioShock franchise. I’ll be heading up Cloud Chamber and overseeing development of the next BioShock game, along with franchise extensions like the in-development Netflix movie.”

Fergusson also confirmed that Cloud Chamber is “restructuring,” following a report from Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier that the studio is laying off an unspecified number of staff.

“While I’m excited to get started in the coming weeks, I recognize the studio restructuring is a difficult time for the team,” Fergusson said. “I’m deeply grateful for the work done so far, and I’m committed to building a BioShock game we’ll be proud of and that our players will love.”

He continued, “For now, the firehose of onboarding awaits, and I look forward to sharing more when I can.”

2K announced the opening of Cloud Chamber and a new BioShock game in December 2019. Earlier in August, Bloomberg reported that Cloud Chamber leadership was changing following a recently failed publisher review, and that an unannounced BioShock remake was also canceled earlier this year.

Fergusson’s return to BioShock is notable, as Fergusson was hired by 2K in August 2012 to salvage the then-troubled BioShock Infinite‘s production. In a 2014 report by Polygon, it was said that many employees believed the game would not have shipped without him.