Take Two Interactive apparently knows a good franchise when it sees one. Case in point: BioShock. The imaginative first person shooter from Ken Levine's team at 2K Boston/Australia has won tons of awards and, as revealed today in Take Two's latest financial announcement, has shipped 2.2 million copies between the PC and Xbox 360 versions. A few months ago, it was announced that BioShock 2 was in developed at the new 2K Marin studio (Levine will have some input, though) for release sometime in Take Two's 2009 fiscal year (which ends Oct. 31, 2009). A deal to make a BioShock film was also announced earlier this year.

But Take Two is already looking to the far future of the franchise. During the financial analyst conference call today (you can listen to the repeat at Take Two's web site), one analyst asked if the BioShock movie will be released around the same time as BioShock 2. The replay from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick was that it was more likely it would be released around the same time as BioShock 3. Yes, the company is looking far ahead to the next game in the series. Of course, BioShock 2 could be a sales bomb and the BioShock movie could fall into "development hell" so it's way too early to get excited yet. But it's clear Take Two execs want to have something other than the Grand Theft Auto franchise to prop up their revenues.