“There’s no online component. There’s no live service, because everything we do is in service of telling the story.”
Ken Levine has revealed his upcoming game, Judas, will be an “old-school” and “traditional” single-player adventure.
It’s been 11 years since BioShock Infinite, and on the surface, Judas seems to be a BioShock game in all but name, with gunplay and elemental powers in an offbeat alternate universe setting. And while that is essentially what trailers have shown us of the game so far, Levine has now confirmed that his upcoming game will indeed feel “old-school” given its focus not on live service or online play, but “telling the story and transporting the player”.
Ken Levine on System Shock 2, Ghost Story Games, and Judas | Deep Dive“I grew up playing single-player games,” Levine said. “And I grew up before […] certain types of monetisation existed. I’m not here at all to say this is bad, or this is good, right? That’s not really my thing. I know the kinds of games I like to make, and so we never made a game… like, Juas is a very old-school game,” Levine told Nightdive’s Lawrence Sonntag in a recent interview (thanks, GR+).
“You buy the game and you get the whole thing. There’s no online component. There’s no live service, because everything we do is in service of telling the story and transporting the player somewhere.
“We’re very fortunate. This is no diss on any developers who have done that, because look, games are expensive to make, and we’re very fortunate to work at a company where they believe in us enough that they say, ‘Okay, you’ve been working on this thing for a long time, it’s gonna cost a reasonable amount of money, and we’re not gonna push any of that stuff on you.'”
We initially expected Judas to launch by the end of the last financial year – April 2025 – but as yet, we still don’t have a release window, let alone a firm date.