Levine: BioShock Vita still in “paper design stage,” could be outsourced

Irrational Games boss Ken Levine announced BioShock for PlayStation Vita at E3 in Los Angeles this June, but the game has yet to move past the “paper design stage,” Levine explained during a recent interview with Joystiq.

BioShock for Vita isn’t a port of the first or second game, nor is it a portable version of the studio’s upcoming BioShock Infinite. Accordin to leveine, “that’s not the current goal for what we’re doing.

“I think for us, the idea we have is a really good expression on a platform like that [Vita]. It’s a different goal. And it has to sort of have its own voice in the franchise. If it just feels like a quieter voice in the franchise, I don’t think that works. For us.”

He added, “I’d rather do something that’s an experiment and that’s a little different. And is unique for the franchise.”

Levine does cite concern with the studio’s size, however, and fears Irrational itself may not be able to take on the proejct.

“There are never enough resources to do anything, you know?” Levine laughed. “We’re always stretched.”

Levine’s main worry, if it were outsourced (“potentially, potentially,” he assured), is maintaining the quality Irrational has worked so hard to set.

“We have a Metacritic average of something like 88 or 89 percent [87.7 percent]. And the way you do that is you’re very careful with your bets … we made that bet and now we’re very carefully proceeding to make sure that it’s a game that stands tall within the franchise.”

Irrational has spoken with some “extraodinary people” regarding the potential outsource of the game, but has not yet decided on a studio–if Irrational decides to outsource the game in the long run.

“To keep quality level … I wish I could say it was easy … it just tend to be more time consuming,” he said. “It’s just hard to find the right partners or the right people to hire.”

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