BioShock Infinite
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Ken Levine opens up on the violence in BioShock Infinite

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

BioShock Infinite sold millions of copies as one of the most popular video games of 2013, but did it have to be so incredibly violent?

Ken Levine, the designer of the game at Irrational Games (now defunct), talked about why the game was so violent in an interview with NPR’s Arun Rath on All Tech Considered. Rath noted that one critic called the game about a fictionalized version of early American history a “case study in unnecessary violence.” In that respect, it hardly stood out among the titles shown off at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) tradeshow in Los Angeles.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.