2K Marin, the main development studio for BioShock 2, is gearing up to develop another game. A new job posting offers up a couple details.

The listing is for a "Multiplayer Systems Designer," responsible for "prototyping and fostering of one or more multiplayer gameplay systems, including scoring rules, game modes, matchmaking, lobbies and community features." It also notes that experience with "Xbox Live and/or Playstation Network implementation and standards" and the "Unreal engine" is a plus.

It's possible that they're planning for BioShock 3, here. The series is, of course, powered by Unreal Engine 3 and appears on PS3 and Xbox 360. More importantly, Take-Two envisions BioShock to be a long-term franchise. They believe that BioShock 2's going to be a big hit for them next year and they're probably confident enough in that assessment to greenlight a sequel.

There's two ways of looking at BioShock 2's potential success. If it scores big with critic and sells well, either A) 2K Marin will be pushed to develop BioShock 3 to capitalize on the B2'S success, or B) 2K Marin will earn enough clout to experiment and make something new. When the studio was first formed, it was said that they'd be developing "original intellectual property," too. A completely new project is therefore possible, too.

For BioShock 2, 2K farmed out the game's multiplayer to Digital Extremes. If this new project is BioShock 3, maybe they're looking to "own" the online side of that game a little bit more. On the other hand, Digital Extremes just started recruiting for a "high profile unannounced project" so perhaps they'll be assisting with the next installment in the series as well.