Levine confirms no PS3 BioShock and does mea culpa on PC issues -- success hurts

Joystiq just got off the phone with Ken Levine, lead designer for BioShock, and was told that the PC version's issues are overblown because the game's high profile has placed it under a microscope. He fully admits they "screwed up" and notes that patches are most definitely in the works. Furthermore, there is no PS3 version of BioShock in development or planned.

Levine admits there were "real screw-ups" and he "understands why people are pissed off" about the online copy protection verification for the game and it comes down to a classic victim of their own success story. They couldn't have planned the game would be such an insta-hit and they weren't prepared, so when all those people tried to verify their PC versions online during installation the server crashed. He also reiterated patches are in the works for the FOV issues and that the copy protection limit locked in for PCs will be raised. He also says at some point they will remove the online verification. He says there is nothing "insidious" in their copy-protection, it's the same as any other game that uses the same protection program.

Then there is the lingering question of the rumored PS3 version of BioShock found in the PC code. Levine responds quite clearly, "I promise you, there is no secret plan about the PS3 that we're keeping from people. There's no PS3 development going on that we're hiding. There's lots of stuff that gets into game code, plans change over time and we got an exclusive deal with Microsoft ... that's not a Rosetta Stone discovery."

Update: Full interview with Ken Levine is up.