2K Games announced today that it's partnered with Digital Extremes (the developer behind Dark Sector and one of the co-creators of Epic's Unreal franchise) to help out with development of the upcoming PS3 version of 2K Boston's critically acclaimed BioShock, which is shipping this October.

The London, Ontario-based Digital Extremes said it will use its experience gained from working on the recently released Dark Sector to help 2K optimize BioShock's performance on PS3.

"By partnering with Digital Extremes, 2K Games is delivering a fully optimized experience that takes advantage of the PlayStation 3 system hardware," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "Bringing Digital Extremes on board allows us to continue to deliver the best experience possible to our fans."

"When 2K approached us to assist with development on BioShock for the PlayStation 3 system, it was a no-brainer," said James Schmalz, CEO and founder of Digital Extremes. "You really can't ask for a more exciting, technically impressive world to work in than Rapture, and the incredible knowledge and talent between the 2K studios and our team at Digital Extremes is unprecedented. The collaboration on this project will make the PlayStation 3 system sing with Big Daddy goodness and Little Sister 'thank you's'."

In addition to the PS3 version, 2K is also working on BioShock 2 for release sometime in 2009, and a film based on the franchise is being helmed by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, in partnership with Universal Pictures.