While I couldn't find evidence of an O.zen pre-order and Q1 2014 came to a close without an official release, the device does appear to be in beta. There is a page on Ubisoft's site where one can download the O.zen desktop client, and people on Twitter are testing O.zen and spamming their Twitter timelines.

Advertisement

Despite not owning an O.zen Sensor, I downloaded the client. I was actually able to successfully install the client and run it to some degree, but I eventually hit the following roadblock:

Advertisement

The client download also contains a link to a complete O.Zen product manual. The manual reveals that the O.Zen Sensor operates best if it "is not too close to a bright source of light, in particular desk lamps (incandescent or halogen lighting)" or "in bright sunlight." Also, the manual says the O.Zen Sensor is "a device called a photoplethysmograph (PPG) that sends out low-intensity infrared light into the finger and then captures the quantity of light absorbed by the skin and blood vessels." O.Zen software contains activities like five games — one of which is unlockable — and 18 "interactive comic strips" called Zenopedias.

Advertisement

The BioShock movie might once again be a possible thing. Last month, Sony Pictures registered the domain names bioshock-movie.com, bioshock-movie.net and bio-shock.net.

As some may recall, several years ago, a BioShock film was in production at another studio, Universal, with Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski at the helm, but the studio pulled the plug on the film weeks before filming was supposed to start when sets were already being built after costs reportedly ballooned to $160 million. A few months later, 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo replaced Verbinski, but eventually he left the project.

Advertisement

Last year, BioShock creator Ken Levine later claimed he personally killed the project, which was already stuck in development hell and unlikely to ever get made, and suggested Universal got cold feet on Verbinski's "hard R" version after the costly R-rated adaptation Watchmen flopped at the box office. A profile of Levine, a screenwriter-turned-game designer, mentioned that he was considering "taking a stab" at a screenplay for a BioShock film during his vacation time following the completion of BioShock Infinite. Levine is once again writing screenplays — he is now writing a script for the long-in-development Logan's Run remake — so I have to wonder if he might be involved in the project this time around.

BioShock would be one of many video game projects currently in the works at Sony Pictures. As of late, the studio is also working on films based on Watch Dogs, Uncharted, Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Sonic the Hedghog, Raving Rabbids, the Sega-Nintendo console wars, among others. Whether any of these movies actually get made is another question entirely.

Advertisement

superannuation is a self-described "internet extraordinaire" residing somewhere in the Pacific Time Zone. Follow him on Twitter.