ArkaEvren
BioShock Infinite

GAME · 2013 · USA

BioShock Infinite

Developer
Irrational Games, 2K, Aspyr
Publisher
2K
Platforms
Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, macOS

53 archived facts 7 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Nov 2026

  • BioShock Infinite — production image

53 Interesting Facts About BioShock Infinite

Interesting Facts (10)

  1. #001

    Whenever Elizabeth throws a coin to Booker, he always catches it "Heads Up."

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  2. #002

    The development team reportedly cut "five or six games worth" of material during development.

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  3. #003

    According to the official strategy guide for the game, the animators drew their inspiration for Elizabeth's emotions, characteristics, and animations from female protagonists of Disney movies.

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  4. #004

    Originally, Daisy Fitzroy was white.

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  5. #005
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    At the end of the game, when Booker encounters multiple Elizabeths, one of the Elizabeths is the beta model of the character seen in the first game footage. This may be a subtle suggestion that the previously shown version of BioShock Infinite (with different gameplay mechanics and designs) is itself canon in another universe.

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  6. #006

    During development, a religious developer threatened to resign over the portrayal of the Christian character Comstock. Ken Levine decided to sit down with the developer to discuss the character; if the developer was not convinced by the end of the meeting, they would be free to leave without hard feelings. In the end, the developer was satisfied by Levine's promise to add depth to the character and returned to work, and the discussion encouraged Levine to write Comstock with more layers than he had planned.

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  7. #007

    According to the game's official strategy guide, animators drew inspiration from the heroines of Disney films for Elizabeth's emotions, traits and animations.

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  8. #008

    In the game, Jeremiah Fink pays his employees with company scrip, a common practice in which workers can only spend their wages at company stores. In keeping with the historical record, Fink chose to raise prices at the company stores rather than give raises in order to cover labor costs.

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  9. #009

    The Xbox 360 version of BioShock Infinite became backward compatible on Xbox One on December 13, 2016. The BioShock games were among the first titles announced for the backward compatibility program. It took roughly a year for them to finally arrive, and in the meantime a BioShock remastered collection was released for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

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  10. #010

    The game begins at a lighthouse, just as in the original BioShock.

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Production Story (22)

  1. #011

    During development, one religious developer threatened to quit because he was offended by the portrayal of Comstock, a Christian. Ken Levine decided to sit down with the developer and discuss the character; if the developer wasn't satisfied at the end of the conversation over what they would do with Comstock as a character, he would be allowed to leave with no hard feelings. In the end, the developer was happy with the changes Levine promised to give the character and returned to work, and the discussion encouraged Levine to write Comstock with more depth and personality than he had originally intended.

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  2. #012

    Television ads for this game depicted a scene where Booker rescues Elizabeth from being hanged by a mob, before they are both attacked by a Handyman. No such scene exists in the actual game.

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  3. #013

    The original conflict was going to be between the "tech geeks" and the "luddites". Ken Levine decided this conflict wasn't controversial enough, so he changed it and added the political angle.

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  4. #014

    Almost nothing from the original E3 2011 trailer appears in the final game.

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  5. #015

    In earlier builds of the game, Elizabeth had an array of psychokinetic powers that she would use in tandem with Booker's. In the final build of the game, Elizabeth's powers were limited to opening dimensional tears.

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  6. #016
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    In the first teaser trailer for the game, the buildings of Columbia were held aloft by propellers and hot air balloons. In the actual game, Columbia is held aloft by quantum particles.

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  7. #017

    After BioShock shipped in 2007, Irrational Games and 2K Games agreed that select Irrational personnel would form a new studio, 2K Marin, to begin a sequel while Ken Levine and Irrational instead joined a game in the XCOM franchise.

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  8. #018

    Disappointment within Irrational's ranks matched Levine's lack of interest in XCOM, because another company rather than Irrational was making the next BioShock.

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  9. #019

    Before settling on the floating city of Columbia, Irrational weighed other settings for BioShock Infinite, among them returning to Rapture or placing the story in the Renaissance period.

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  10. #020

    While BioShock Infinite's story mode was being constantly revised, two multiplayer modes were also in design: Border Control, a tower defense game set in the game's world, and a cooperative mode code-named Spec-Ops for up to four players, with matches on maps that would evolve after release and use environmental storytelling to show Columbia's civil war.

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  11. #021

    BioShock Infinite's ship date repeatedly slipped during development at Irrational, and staff left the company amid concern inside Irrational that the game would never be finished.

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  12. #022

    Game producer Don Roy joined BioShock Infinite in March 2012 and, finding no playable game available when he asked, created a new workflow to bring order to the project's disorganized and inefficient management.

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  13. #023

    By choosing the hypothetical date of July 4, 1912, the BioShock Infinite team identified films such as The Music Man, Meet Me in St. Louis and Hello, Dolly as sources of imagery showing ideal views of Americana at the turn of the 20th century.

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  14. #024

    Other inspiration for BioShock Infinite's art came from photographs taken before and after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and from Sears-Roebuck catalogs.

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  15. #025

    Early designs for BioShock Infinite's flying city were darker and leaned toward Art Nouveau, but Irrational Games judged that direction too claustrophobic and too close to Rapture.

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  16. #026

    Irrational Games designed Columbia's vertical, open-air spaces to allow more varied combat than the confined areas of Rapture.

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  17. #027

    BioShock Infinite's floating city setting was conceived early in development, but the name "Columbia" and the American exceptionalism themes that shaped the story were only settled on eight months before the game's reveal.

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  18. #028

    BioShock Infinite drew on the 2011 Occupy movement as an influence, which shaped how the Vox Populi group developed from its disorganized origins.

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  19. #029

    During early development of BioShock Infinite, Elizabeth was conceived as a utility character who handled tasks such as lock-picking that the player could not, rather than as a central partner.

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  20. #030

    After favorable player reactions to Elizabeth in the E3 2011 demo, Irrational expanded her role and abilities to make her a larger part of BioShock Infinite.

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  21. #031

    Irrational deliberately avoided giving Elizabeth the same tools as the player, such as a gun, and instead equipped her with helpful abilities like tossing supplies to Booker or deciphering codes to strengthen her emotional connection with the player.

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  22. #032

    Elizabeth's design and costume in BioShock Infinite were created so players could recognize her from a distance, given the game's open spaces and limited resolution, with a color scheme inspired by superheroes.

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Behind the Scenes (6)

  1. #033

    Many of the anachronistic songs in the game were arranged by Scott Bradlee, who would later form the band Postmodern Jukebox, which focuses on performing contemporary songs in various, often older, styles. He appears in the game as Albert Fink, brother of Jeremiah Fink. His dead body can be found in Emporia near a tear where Cyndi Lauper's original version of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" can be heard.

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  2. #034

    If you stay in the credits, you can watch a cutscene of Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper singing.

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  3. #035

    In order to get an emotional performance from Courtnee Draper, Troy Baker and director Ken Levine repeatedly made derogatory and insulting remarks towards Courtnee Draper during recording sessions at her request, until she achieved the proper emotion necessary for the performance.

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  4. #036

    To finish BioShock Infinite, Irrational went through sustained crunch; one staffer estimated he spent most of the final year of development working 12-hour days.

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  5. #037

    The bright, open-air environments of Columbia posed a challenge for the BioShock Infinite team, who wanted to retain aspects of horror within the game.

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  6. #038

    For BioShock Infinite, the developers drew on Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and David Lynch's Blue Velvet as inspiration for turning bright, sterile settings into frightening ones.

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Characters & Cast (3)

  1. #039

    BioShock Infinite centers on the relationship between the player character Booker and the AI companion Elizabeth. Unlike BioShock's Jack, who speaks only in the opening sequence, and BioShock 2's silent Subject Delta, Booker was given his own voice and a fully fleshed-out identity.

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  2. #040

    Elizabeth was designed as a character who could serve as a useful AI companion while also acting as a real partner with a significant emotional bond to the player.

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  3. #041

    Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper, the voice actors for Booker and Elizabeth, helped refine the story and their characters.

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Easter Eggs & References (9)

  1. #042

    When you get to Monument Island, before you rescue Elizabeth, there's a projector that plays several dates of Elizabeth being observed performing a variety of tasks. One of the film clips is dated 04/15/12, which of course is the day the Titanic sank.

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  2. #043

    In a tear opened by Elizabeth, there is a Parisian cinema projecting "La Revanche du Jedi", French for "Revenge of the Jedi", a working title of "Return of the Jedi". This tear probably gives access to a reality where the working title of the movie was retained.

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  3. #044

    In BioShock, the vending machine would exclaim "Welcome to the circus of values!" In BioShock Infinite, they say "It's a carnival of thrift!"

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  4. #045

    While Booker and Elizabeth walk through an arcade, she sees a game and remarks how she heard it was "delayed THREE times". This is a sly wink from the writers, as BioShock Infinite itself was delayed several times.

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  5. #046

    Near a vendor early in the game, a wrench can be seen, identical to the wrench from the first BioShock.

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  6. #047

    Towards the beginning of the game, when Booker is baptized upon entering Columbia, before taking the baptism, a priest in a hall asks another priest: "Is it someone new?" This is a reference to the original BioShock, where the first splicer the player encounters outside the bathysphere asks the same question.

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  7. #048

    While Booker and Elizabeth are walking through the streets just after she goes dancing, the tune to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper can be heard as played by street musicians; the song also turns up in its original version during one of Elizabeth's 'tears'.

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  8. #049
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    In the second tear Elizabeth opens, in Finkton Proper, where Booker is a revolutionary hero, you can hear a woman singing Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son," although neither Booker nor Elizabeth acknowledge the song.

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  9. #050
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Towards the beginning of the game Booker is approached by the Lutece twins. One is wearing a chalkboard with a heads and tails column of which there are no tails recorded, only heads. They throw Booker a coin and tell him to pick either; he chooses heads. They mark the call, and as Robert Lutece turns around, you can see numerous other accounts of heads called on the other side, with zero tails.

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Deeper Meaning (2)

  1. #051

    In the game, Jeremiah Fink paid his employees in company scrip, a common practice where employees could only buy from company stores. True to historical records, Fink followed the practice of raising prices in company stores without providing raises in order to recoup labor costs.

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  2. #052
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Albert Fink "created" his music by overhearing songs through the numerous random tears that would appear in Columbia. Because of this, the songs you hear being sung throughout the game are actually songs in the "future" re-worked to sound period specific. For example, the quartet in the beginning of the game sings "God Only Knows" originally by the Beach Boys and in a bar in the game you can overhear a version of "Tainted Love" by Gloria Jones.

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Career & Awards (1)

  1. #053

    After BioShock Infinite was released to manufacturing, more than a dozen Irrational staff voluntarily left, with departures accelerating as post-launch content began development. Infinite was the last game Irrational made in the series, as much of its staff was fired in 2014 and the studio rebranded as Ghost Story Games, while the intellectual property stayed with 2K Games.

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Related pages

  • Westworld — BioShock Infinite comes up in the facts on that page

Sources & editorial notes

Sources for the entries on this page

  1. Wikipedia BioShock Infinite — WikipediaEncyclopedia · accessed 18 Sep 2026

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