Take Two has announced that BioShock 2 will be released in fiscal Q4 2009. The publisher's financial year is two months ahead of the calendar year, so that means we'll see the game somewhere in the August-October 2009 period.
Interestingly, Take Two hasn't set Ken Levine's 2K Boston (formerly Irrational Games) to work on this one, preferring recently-formed studio 2K Marin, based in Novato, California, for what's inevitably going to be among the most highly anticipated sequels of 2009.
(Update: However, the company said during a subsequent conference call that Levine would be involved in the game's production: "He will be working on Bioshock 2 and he will be working on a new IP.")
When Take Two announced 2K Marin's formation in December, the company said the studio would "build upon [2K's] success in creating and leveraging AAA franchises". Go team leverage! BioShock has now sold over 2 million units worldwide, Take Two pointed out today.
Platforms and other details were not mentioned (the first one was PC and 360, if you've already forgotten), and nor were details of what the "new IP" Levine/2K Boston are working on is. We'll let you know when we do.
It will certainly be interesting to see how 2K Marin approaches a BioShock follow-up. Events in the first game would suggest it's unlikely we'll see a return to Rapture unless we're in prequel territory
source:
BioShock 2 announced News // None /// Eurogamer