BioShock PC remasters arrive 15 September, plus system requirements

The PC release of BioShock: The Collection, and the individual PC remasters (which will be free to existing owners), will launch at 3pm Pacific on 15 September. That’s two days later than the 13 September release date for the US console bundles.

2K has put up a blog post explaining how the ‘upgrade’ process is going to work for people who already own copies BioShock, BioShock 2 and/or Minerva’s Den (Infinite isn’t getting any remastering on PC). For those who own any of those on Steam, it’s pretty simple. Remastered versions of any of the BioShock games you own will appear in your Steam library as separate games on 15 September, around 3pm (Pacific). That’s 11pm in the UK.

If you own an original, physical copy of BioShock from 2007 then things will be a lot trickier. That game didn’t have a CD key, so the only way to get a remastered version out of 2K will be to provide proof of purchase along with your Steam profile details to their support team.

BioShock 2 will be slightly easier. The process of changing a Games For Windows Live version to a Steam one have been in place for quite some time. Following the steps at that link should sort you out.

Here are the minimum and recommended PC specs for the newer versions.

Minimum Specs:

• OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit. Platform Update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Processor: Intel E6750 Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHZ
• Memory: 4 GB
• Hard Drive: BioShock 25GB; BioShock 2 25GB; BioShock Infinite 20GB; Total for all three games 70GB
• Video Card: DirectX11 Compatible, AMD Radeon HD 7770 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Device
• Other Requirements: Software installations required including DirectX and Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 & 2012 Redistributable Package.

Recommended Specs:

• OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit. Platform Update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Processor: 3GHz Quad-Core
• Memory: 8 GB
• Hard Drive: BioShock 25GB; BioShock 2 25GB; BioShock Infinite 30GB; Total for all three games 80GB
• Video Card: 2GB ATI Radeon HD 7970, 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 or better
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Device

 Some system components such as mobile chipsets, integrated, and AGP graphics cards may be incompatible. Unlisted specifications may not be supported by publisher.