$150 BioShock Infinite 'Songbird' edition revealed

Irrational Games today announced a $150 Ultimate Songbird Edition for BioShock Infinite. The bundle's premier item is a 9.5-inch statue (below right) of the game's Songbird creature, which has been designed by System Shock, BioShock, Thief, and Freedom Force concept artist Robb Waters.

The developer also took the lid off the $80 Premium Edition for BioShock Infinite, which includes a 3-inch keychain, a propaganda lithograph, a 25 millimeter Handyman miniature, and an art book. Additionally, it features various digital items, including in-game gear and the title's digital soundtrack.

Everything included in the Premium Edition is also bundled with the Ultimate Songbird Edition. At press time, the bundles were not available for preorder in the United States, although a website promising to take preorders has gone live. Irrational said both packs will be available for reservation in Europe and Australia beginning October 22. For more on each bundle, check out the landing page at Irrational's website.

BioShock Infinite was originally expected to ship on October 16, but was delayed to February 26, 2013 earlier this year. Several top developers have quit the studio, and its multiplayer modes were recently axed.

BioShock Infinite is set in Columbia, a flying city in an early alternate 20th century where utopian ideals have given way to chaos in a sea of weaponry, plasmid-like powers, and political upheaval. Into this mess steps the game's protagonist, Booker DeWitt, a former member of the feared Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which was America's largest security company in the late 19th century.

According to GameSpot's latest preview, DeWitt will enter a world where steampunk robots have replaced horses and people, and where crazed citizens foment revolution with strange powers--and lots of guns.