If it feels like we've been waiting forever BioShock creator Ken Levine's next game, Judasit's because we have. Episode two of BioShock Infinite's Burial at Sea DLC ended the game's story on March 25, 2014, and since then Levine's continued legacy has hung in the balance, stuck somewhere between BioShock and Judas. To top it all off, the upcoming FPS was revealed at the 2022 Game Awards, and in classic Hollow Knight: Silk Song-like fashion has yet to arrive, despite finding some time here and there to pop up in a very limited, conversational way. But if it means Judas still exists, after over three years of waiting since it was revealed, where in the world is it?
The truth is, no one knows right now except Levine himself, and there's a real possibility that even he doesn't have an answer worth giving yet. To be fair, there is a lot riding on it Judasconsidering it will be his first full game since then BioShock Infiniteand in light of how complex FPS seems to be, there is no minimum amount of time or patience until the game is both complete and working as intended. Ghost Story Games has described Judas as built around a “dynamic narrative”, with characters reacting to even small player choices, which may explain why it has spent so long in development. Still, that only makes the wait easier to understand, not easier to ignore, especially when Judas has resurfaced just enough to prove it hasn't disappeared while still officially without a release date.
Judas Waiting Room playlist
Ken Levine's Judas is still missing, but expectant players can check out these alternate experiences in the meantime.
Judas exists, but that's about it
Judas isn't missing in the sense that Ghost Story Games has stopped talking about it, but it's also not close enough to launch for anyone to say much for sure. The game has a confirmed premise, platforms, trailers, hands-on previews, and several developer updates, including a 2025 split of Judas' Villainy system and a later explanation of its “dynamic story” (often called “narrative LEGO”) design, which Ghost Story says took years to figure out on a systemic level. Despite that, its release date is still listed as TBA, leaving Judas in that weird space where it obviously exists, but mostly as a collection of promises and carefully spaced updates rather than a game with a fixed place on the calendar.
Who is that character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Start
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s) Medium (5.0s) Hard (2.5s) Permadeath (2.5s)
Timeline of Judah's development
- 2014 – Irrational Games is disbanded and Ken Levine begins to pursue a smaller, more experimental narrative game vision.
- 2017 – Ghost Story Games is formally introduced as Levine's new Take-Two studio.
- DECEMBER 2022 – Judas officially revealed at The Game Awards as a single-player narrative FPS for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
- FEBRUARY 2023 – Take-Two suggests Judas scheduled for release in March 2025.
- JANUARY 2024 – Judas gets a new story trailer during PlayStation's State of Play.
- MARCH 2024 – Selected stores and creators play several hours Judas on Ghost Story Games.
- MARCH 2025 – The previously expected release window passes without a start.
- AUGUST 2025 – Ghost Story reappears with Dev Log #1, revealing the “Villainy” system, where the player's actions determine which main character becomes the villain.
- DECEMBER 2025 – Dev Log #2 explains Judas“Dynamic storytelling” system, which Ghost Story says took years to solve.
- FEBRUARY 2026 – Take-Two still lists Judas for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, but with a TBA release date.
With Judas after being confirmed by Take-Two in February of this year, just a few months ago, at least it's still real. But Levine has also continued to bring up the game, if not just to make sure it doesn't fade into the background. In a recent interview with IGN, for example, he explained why the game has taken so long to develop, and it ultimately comes down to Ghost Story's vision for a narrative that fully responds to the player's decisions.
Ghost Story builds Judas around a very reactive narrative
“The reason it took so long is not really related to rendering technology or anything like that,” Levine said in the interview. “It was figuring out how we created the system, this storytelling LEGO system that combines modular elements dynamically at runtime to make stories happen that are very reactive to the player.” Of course, that could explain why it has taken so long since the work was done Judas began, but why the years continued to pass after its formal Game Awards reveal may be another story.
Chances are, though, it isn't. if anything, JudasPost-reveal silence makes more sense when considering what Ghost Story is actually trying to build. Levine's “narrative LEGO” system means that the game must recognize what the player is doing, the order in which they do it, how the main characters feel about it, and how those characters should react in a way that still feels authored rather than random. It already took them “years,” according to Levine, just to figure out how to make it work, but putting it into practice is a whole other ball game. It's a completely different problem than writing a strong story, recording dialogue and placing it along a mostly fixed trajectory. Instead, it's a problem of making the story flexible without letting it fall apart.
if anything, JudasPost-reveal silence makes more sense when considering what Ghost Story is actually trying to build.
It probably gets even more complicated with Judas' Villain system, where the player's actions can determine which main character becomes the villain. In theory, this means that Ghost Story has to account for several different emotional states, alliances, rivalries, betrayals, and game consequences without making any version of the story feel like the lesser path. One character can help Judas in battle, another can bribe her, another can turn against her, and all of this has to tie back into the player's history with them in a way that feels legible.
All of that sounds exciting, sure, but it also sounds like an infinitely tall Jenga tower that could collapse at any minute if a single piece were out of place. And that problem is sure to get more and more complex over time as newer pieces are added. Each new piece affects the rest, allowing the team to decide what's worth keeping and what isn't, potentially leading to entire reworks. So, while Judas Missing its previously expected window is no doubt frustrating, its delay may ultimately come down to the very thing that makes it interesting in the first place. Ghost Story attempts to create a first-person shooter where the story is not only told to the player, but constantly rearranged around them.
For now, it's best to let Judas do his thing
For now, Judas is still more of a question than a known quantity, and that may be the safest way to look at it. Ghost Story Games has revealed enough to make the game sound ambitious, but ambition is only part of the equation. Levine has said that the game's long development is tied to its “narrative LEGO” system, which dynamically combines modular story elements around player choices, so rushing it before the design is fully functional would defeat the purpose of the entire project.
It does Judas frustrating to wait for, but it also makes it harder to argue that Ghost Story should just hurry up and release it. About the whole point of Judas is to make its story feel reactive in a way that Ken Levine's previous games never were, then the game needs space to prove that the idea can actually hold together. Until there is a firm release date, Judas will remain stuck between mystery and proof, but at least it's still there. After all, it could be worse.
- Released
-
2026
- Developer
-
Ghost Story game
- Publisher
-
Ghost Story game
- Engine
-
Unreal Engine 4
- Number of players
-
Single player
