Earlier this week, 2K Games acknowledged a shake-up at Cloud Chamber–the studio behind BioShock 4–following reports that the game failed an internal review. Now, a new report suggests that the game could have come out as soon as next year if BioShock 4 had been more favorably received by the company.

According to Bloomberg, BioShock 4 was planned for a debut in either late 2026 or early 2027. However, the subsequent layoffs at Cloud Chamber will likely delay the next BioShock game even further. Bloomberg notes that 80 employees from Cloud Chamber were let go, leaving approximately 170 people remaining at the studio.

Studio head Kelley Gilmore was ousted from Cloud Chamber after the game’s internal review, according to the report. In his place, 2K Games has hired Rod Fergusson to take over the studio following his own departure from Blizzard. In addition to leading the Diablo franchise for Blizzard, Fergusson previously worked on BioShock Infinite and helped get that game’s production on track.

The initial reports about BioShock 4’s status suggested that 2K Games was unsatisfied by the narrative. In a memo shared with GameSpot by 2K Games, president David Ismaile said, “While we’re excited about the foundational gameplay elements of the project, we’ve made the decision with studio leadership to rework certain aspects that are core to a BioShock game.”

For now, there’s no word about the release window of BioShock 4. Francis Lawrence is slated to direct a live-action BioShock movie at Netflix, and a new draft of the film has been written by Terminator: Dark Fate scribe Justin Rhodes.

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