BioShock might never have seen the light of day, recalls game designer Ken Levine in a conversation with EDGE magazine. According to him, publishers showed no interest in the first part of the series.
BioShock
Levine admitted that for some time, he himself refused to make a new immersive sim. He knew from his experience with System Shock 2 that such games don't sell very well. Eventually, the staff at Irrational Games convinced Levine and got his agreement to develop BioShock.
After creating a "cheap prototype" of BioShock, the studio began reaching out to publishers. They all responded with refusals, also pointing out the game's weak commercial potential. Then Irrational Games decided to stir up some buzz in the press and showed BioShock to a journalist who praised the game. The idea worked — publishers finally became interested in the project and began offering collaborations.
The rights to publish BioShock were bought by Rockstar Games and 2K. According to Levine, at first, they allocated a modest budget for the game, but later provided "a ton of money." Nevertheless, Irrational Games didn't stick to this amount. Because of overspending and prolonged development, 2K "almost canceled" the game but then gave the BioShock creators another chance.