International Press Event for the Much-Anticipated Video Game Release: BioShock

2K Games is at the forefront of game development in the growingly competitive and popular video game industry. Their best-selling releases have included titles such as Civilization IV, The Darkness, Elder Scrolls IV, and many more. For their most recent, and highly anticipated title, Bioshock, 2K enlisted Empire Entertainment to produce a one-of-a-kind international press event in New York City. The event was held at The Newspace, a large, open gallery space in the heart of New York City's chic Chelsea art district. The event was designed to recreate the unique, undersea environments depicted in the game and the set the gaming experience apart from all other current titles.

Working closely with the game's developers and recreating creative elements from the game, Empire created an undersea world that submerged guests into "Rapture," the games fictional Atlantis-like city beneath the waves. Empire delved deeply into the concept and in-game art of "Rapture" to create a cohesive environment for the event space that would be a suitable setting for actual game play. The room was surrounded with realistic water projections and lighting effects. At the center of the room a large circular bar rose with a large sculpture of water filled tubes at the center, lit from below. Video gaming press from every corner of the globe came to Rapture to experience the game for the first time ever.

The evening began with cocktails in an environment in which surround projections simulated a position about the ocean surface. The presentation then began with an animation that took guests to the ocean floor and then segued to an introduction and game walkthrough delivered by Ken Levine, BioShock's creator and one of the most respected and talented game designers in the industry. Following the demonstration, guests were invited to be the first people outside the company ever to play the game and they quickly jumped on and huddled around one of the 40 XBox gaming stations setup around the room.

Since the image quality and gaming experience needed to be perfect, Empire brought in state-of-the-art projection hardware such as twin high definition projectors to show off Bioshock's game play at the highest resolution and largest size possible. DL2 moving lights with built-in video effect generators were utilized to bathe the walls in an array of submersive water-theme visuals, and 32" HDTVs were brought in for each of the Xbox gaming stations. In selecting Empire as it's producer, 2K Games recognized Empire's position as a leading production company of cutting-edge product launches that utilize state-of-the-art design and technology.