Irrational has broken its silence on the Vita iteration of BioShock. Speaking at a BioShock Infinite preview event in Los Angeles this week, BioShock Infinite creative director Ken Levine gave a small glimmer of hope to fans of Sony’s handheld, commenting that the Vita game could still be in the cards but that it’s currently out of his control.

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“That is in the hands of business people right now,” Levine told IGN. “It’s something I’m still interested in, and people ask me that all the time. Right now I’m just sort of waiting to see what the business people come up with, and that’s sort of out of my hands at this point. That’s something that I think has a lot of potential. The game idea we have has a lot of potential. It’s just a question of [if] their stars all align.”As for whether that game would bring players to Rapture or Columbia, Levine reminded us that “I actually never said where it was going to be set. I just said it would be in the BioShock franchise.” BioShock Vita was first teased at E3 2011 when Levine brought the handheld on stage during Sony’s press conference and referred to it as his “pet project.” Later, Levine confirmed to IGN that BioShock Vita will be an all new game , commenting that “it's a different project. It's its own thing being built from the ground up” and “a core game.”Levine last commented on BioShock Vita in October 2011 , referring to the project as “in the paper design stage” and noting that the Vita iteration is “a different goal. And it has to sort of have its own voice in the franchise.”Irrational’s next game, BioShock Infinite, will hit stores in March 2013 . For more on what’s new, read our hands-on impressions from today, and check back to IGN early next week for our full interview with Levine.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.