User blog:Gardimuer/BioShock candidate for "Art of Games" exhibit, and other news

Here is a roundup of minor news related to the BioShock series from the last few days.

From Irrational Games
Irrational wishes everyone a happy Valentines Day with a sweet Columbia themed card.

Irrational Games has also announced that they will be doing a special in-depth panel at PAX East in March with "BioShock Infinite materials ranging from concept sketches to fully formed scenes." According to the Irrational Games blog, the panel will be titled "From Background To Center Stage: Building Game Worlds As Main Characters":

I don't know about you, but I'm jealous of anyone who gets to attend PAX East and see this awesome material. See a full schedule for PAX East here:

The Art of Video Games at the Smithsonian
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is taking votes for what video games out of 240 nominees should be displayed at their upcoming "Art of Video Games" exhibit. You can cast your vote at their website. BioShock appears in the "Next Generation" section (ERA 5) in the Xbox 360 category. You can vote for one game in each of the 80 categories, and the winners will be displayed at the museum starting in March of 2012.

Game Figurines
The NECA showcased a new collection on BioShock figurines at the Toy Fair in New York City. You can see the new figures on the NECA BioShock Toy Series page. They include: Additionally, NECA has stated they will be making figurines for BioShock Infinite when it is released in 2012.
 * A "Crawler" Spider Splicer.
 * A Lady Smith Splicer.
 * A Bouncer Big Daddy with portholes that light up.

Activision thinking of acquiring Take-Two?
Take-Two Interactive is the parent company of 2K Games, which published BioShock and BioShock 2, and is also supporting the Irrational Games studio as it works on BioShock Infinite. A rumor has started that Activision may be thinking of buying out Take-Two. If this is true, it could have major repercussions for all of 2K's studios, including Irrational Games and 2K Marin. Read more about it here:

Bad News for the BioShock Movie
Gore Verbinski has explained that production of the BioShock movie stalled because publishers were unwilling to finance an expensive R-rated movie.