Bioshock was an easy enough game to make, in large part because most of the people who worked on it had already done so several years before. All they had to do was carbon-copy System Shock 2's script, do a find-replace on the script to change "claustrophobic space station" to "underwater city decked out in art deco decor and shiny brass because it looks nice in the Unreal engine" and "hostile aliens" with "goofy muppet-people that bring less than 1/1000th the level of fear". Then have it appeal to the widest possible audience by releasing it on a popular console and taking out all the character building, tension and strategy by making you an invincible superhero with an unlimited arsenal of superpowers and ridiculously overpowered weaponry. Top it off with a cherry of pretense by making every plot point and character a straw man of an unpopular ideology like objectivism and some cheap emotional manipulation by having young children be victims of this lame supervillain take on it, and bam, you've got a hit. Why objectivism in particular? Well, it's not because Bioshock's creators are interested in bettering the world by pushing whatever opposing philosophy they might live by (wouldn't want to say or do anything divisive and lose potential sales, after all), it's just so Ken Levine can sit on his high horse, take shots at an easy target and put his writing and directing credits in huge screaming letters so he'll be lauded as a genius by twelve-year-olds who will put his game's safe, uncontroversial messages on their Facebook banners and completely ignore the lack of any decent gameplay, original ideas or earnest exploration of its concepts so they can pretend to be smart and morally upright too just like their hero. It must have worked too considering Bioshock's gotten zillions of awards, millions in sales and Ken is still actively canonized by game journalist hacks who just transcribe publisher propaganda and never bother to to any actual research on video games, let alone play them.
By the way, taking digs at hugely unpopular ideologies like objectivism and libertarianism in your "big important game with a big important message" is like making a game where you denounce Saddam Hussein; doing a thing any decent, remotely rational person would might earn you some easy favor, but it sure as hell ain't saying anything profound. Then again when Ken decides to aim at a bigger target he somehow does an even worse job, as I'll highlight in my next review...
Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: 2007
Platforms: XBox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Mac OS X, iOS