It is hard to believe that it has been well over a decade since BioShock fans received the latest entry in the much-loved FPS series.

However, that is most certainly the case with the third entry in the series, BioShock Infinite, being released back in 2013.

Following on from 2007’s BioShock and 2010’s BioShock 2, BioShock Infinite took players to the brand-new location of Columbia to retrieve Elizabeth, a young woman who was being held captive there.

However, with Irrational Studio’s Ken Levine revealing that he was “done” with the BioShock series and wanted to “start over”, he wrapped up development of the series after the launch of BioShock Infinite.

With Levine now developing the upcoming BioShock-esque FPS Judas with brand-new studio Ghost Story Games, it is up to Cloud Chamber to work on development of BioShock 4.

That being said, despite BioShock 4 having been announced over five years ago, we are yet to receive any information about the highly-anticipated sequel.

With fans starting to think that BioShock 4 will never come to fruition, a leaked screenshot appeared online in 2024 and hinted at an alpha build.

Shared to r/Bioshock, the leaked BioShock 4 alpha build screenshot can be seen and we must admit, it looks pretty BioShock-esque.

We can see a strange looking tower in the background and what looks to be a health bar in the top left-hand corner.

In the lower left, we can see what appears to be abilities of some sort which we can guess to be Plasmid use and on the opposite side, we can see the ammo for the Ricochet Shotgun which we assume is the weapon seen alongside it.

Not only that but the screenshot came alongside some further information.

“The image comes from a 2K visual effects artist, but for the sake of privacy (and we don’t want the person getting fired), we are refraining from naming or linking their online profile. The image below is from an early demo build of the game featured in a 2021 showcase reel, and you can see the ‘Parkside’ codename in it,” read the original report by MP1ST.

The image below is from an early demo build of the game featured in a 2021 showcase reel, and you can see the “Parkside” codename in it. Parkside was first referenced by Bloomberg’s ever-reliable Jason Schreier back in 2019 and was corroborated by Colin Moriarty in 2021, stating, “It takes place in a 1960s Antarctic city called Borealis. [The game’s] codenamed ‘Parkside’…

It continued, “Parkside was first referenced by Bloomberg’s ever-reliable Jason Schreier back in 2019”.

What follows is almost 200 comments discussing this potential leaked screenshot.

“Honestly, style hyped. Even if it’s just an average good game, I’ll probably play it (multiple times),” user akotoshi said.

Another user added, “Judging by this screenshot alone, the new BioShock will feature modernist style architecture, and I wouldn’t mind that at all.”