BioShock Infinite is the third game of the BioShock franchise developed by the now defunct game developer Irrational Games and published by 2K Games(owned by Take Two Interactive). Although it is not an immediate successor to the storylines of the past two BioShock installments, they all possess common themes and concepts used in gameplay. Its setting of an alternate turn of the century, steampunk America also allows for an enriching story that encapsulates current social movements, such as the recent Occupy movement.
The game started development soon after the release of the orginial Bioshock. The game's development involved a 200 person development team and a completely new game engine, Unreal Engine 3. The game was also developed from scratch, not recycling anything from the previous two games. They also gave the protagonist, Booker DeWitt, an identity and a voice, unlike the previous games who had silent protagonists. Elizabeth, the emotional core of the game, was also designed with more of an emotional edge and was inspired in part by Alex Vanyce, an emotional center of the game Half-Life 2.Inspiration for the game's setting came in part from the 2003 nonfiction book The Devil in The White City, whose events take place not to long before the time period of the game.
BioShock Infinite was released worldwide on March 26, 2013 and was later ported by Aspyr for the Mac OSX platform in August 2013. It received near universal acclaim upon its release, the third highest-rated game of the year behind Grand Theft Auto V and The Last of Us.It is considered one of the best games of the seventh generation era of console games, and is praised for both its technical and story elements that are innovative in the industry.It also was a finacnial success, not onlt being the top console game in its release month, but on Steam as well.As of May 2014, the game has sold more than 6 million copies.It has also earned numerous top gaming awards, too many in fact to list here.