Levine: "We're experimenting with lots of things in single-player and multiplayer"

Irrational's Ken Levine has reiterated that the development team's "experimenting" with multiplayer in BioShock Infinite, and cannot say whether or not it will be included in the final product.

Speaking with the Big O and Duke Show, Levine said even if multiplayer was included in the title, it wouldn't be as impactful as the single-player.

He said: "We got a lot of questions with the original BioShock saying, 'You're not having multiplayer? It's a first-person shooter - are you out of your mind?'

"We stuck very firmly to our guns on that, that unless we had something - a multiplayer component that was as compelling as everything else we were doing in the game - we were not going to put the investment into it, because that wouldn't be a service to the product, it wouldn't be a service to the fans and it wouldn't be a service to us - it wouldn't be any good to anybody."

Levine also reiterated, again, his stance on multiplayer, stating it needs fresh elements or else no one will play it and instead go back to Call of Duty or Halo.

"From where we're sitting on BioShock Infinite, we are experimenting with lots of things in single-player and with things in multiplayer all the time. And the question is - and we're incredibly confident now that we've got a single-player experience that is absolutely going to be incredibly impactful on people... We're not convinced of that on a multiplayer side at this point.

"And we're still thinking about it," he added, "but unless we're absolutely convinced, it's not something we would do, because I don't see who it serves."

While Infinite takes place in an alternate society before the events of BioShock, which also took place in an alternate society, the city of Columbia, like Rapture, was created as a propaganda experiment to show the rest of the world the prowess of the US; however, Levine maintains the political undertones in the game have no bearing on the current political quagmire in the States.

"What we're interested in here is not a critique of the United States in any way, shape or form," he said. "What we're interested in is how two different people can look at those founding documents, the same documents - the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence - and come away with entirely different perceptions of what they mean.

"Different enough that they will actually take up arms against one another."

BioShock Infinite is currently in development for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, and is slated for a 2012 release.

Checkout our impressions of Infinite here, along with our gamescom interview with Ken Levine here.

Via Eurogamer.