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Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Old 02-18-14, 11:58 AM
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Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

http://kotaku.com/bioshock-studio-ir...all-1525186316

This seems abrupt, especially given their success with Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite. From their website.

http://irrationalgames.com/

A Message From Ken Levine

When Jon Chey, Rob Fermier and I founded Irrational Games seventeen years ago, our mission was to make visually unique worlds and populate them with singular characters.
We built Rapture and Columbia, the Von Braun and The Rickenbacker, the Freedom Fortress and some of the nastiest basements a SWAT team ever set foot into. We created Booker and Elizabeth, the Big Daddy and the Little Sister, MidWives and ManBot. In that time, Irrational has grown larger and more successful than we could have conceived when we began our three-person studio in a living room in Cambridge, MA. It’s been the defining project of my professional life.

Now Irrational Games is about to roll out the last DLC for BioShock Infinite and people are understandably asking: What’s next?

Seventeen years is a long time to do any job, even the best one. And working with the incredible team at Irrational Games is indeed the best job I’ve ever had. While I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together, my passion has turned to making a different kind of game than we’ve done before. To meet the challenge ahead, I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers. In many ways, it will be a return to how we started: a small team making games for the core gaming audience.

I am winding down Irrational Games as you know it. I’ll be starting a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two. That is going to mean parting ways with all but about fifteen members of the Irrational team. There’s no great way to lay people off, and our first concern is to make sure that the people who are leaving have as much support as we can give them during this transition.

Besides financial support, the staff will have access to the studio for a period of time to say their goodbyes and put together their portfolios. Other Take-Two studios will be on hand to discuss opportunities within the company, and we’ll be hosting a recruiting day where we’ll be giving 3rd party studios and publishers a chance to hold interviews with departing Irrational staff.*

What’s next?

In time we will announce a new endeavor with a new goal: To make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable. To foster the most direct relationship with our fans possible, we will focus exclusively on content delivered digitally.

When I first contemplated what I wanted to do, it became very clear to me that we were going to need a long period of design. Initially, I thought the only way to build this venture was with a classical startup model, a risk I was prepared to take. But when I talked to Take-Two about the idea, they convinced me that there was no better place to pursue this new chapter than within their walls. After all, they’re the ones who believed in and supported BioShock in the first place.

Thanks to Irrational and 2K’s passion in developing the games, and the fans who believe in it, BioShock has generated retail revenues of over a half billion dollars and secured an iconic place in gaming. I’m handing the reins of our creation, the BioShock universe, to 2K so our new venture can focus entirely on replayable narrative. If we’re lucky, we’ll build something half as memorable as BioShock.

We do our best to update an FAQ in this space as questions come in.

-Ken Levine
@iglevine
Old 02-18-14, 12:03 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Well ... I don't know how to feel.

I'm a huge fan of Bioshock (especially the original, though Infinite was great as well) and the Freedom Force Games, so it's sad to see Irrational go. On the other hand, it's not as if the team is leaving the industry. It sounds like Ken will be taking a core with him to his new venture, and hopefully the other people will land on their feet at other developers.

So I guess I'm sad to see Irrational go, but hopefully something even better will take its place.
Old 02-18-14, 12:10 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

That decision seems.....Irrational.
Old 02-18-14, 12:49 PM
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He's tired of AAA. Remember the issue about the cover? That he had to waste time on that is crazy. I'm sure there are a lot of things like that, that made Ken take this decision.
Old 02-18-14, 12:50 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Whoa, didn't see that one coming. With Bioshock being one of my favorite games from last gen, this makes me sad

That being said, I don't know how a company of that size can operate by only releasing two games during a console cycle. I'm sure Bioshock & Infinite sold great, but great enough to keep people employed for 6 years between games? The good news is that is a talented group of people, so they should be able to find another gig.
Old 02-18-14, 12:57 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by mattysemo247
Whoa, didn't see that one coming. With Bioshock being one of my favorite games from last gen, this makes me sad

That being said, I don't know how a company of that size can operate by only releasing two games during a console cycle. I'm sure Bioshock & Infinite sold great, but great enough to keep people employed for 6 years between games? The good news is that is a talented group of people, so they should be able to find another gig.
Yeah, I think one of the tougher things for a studio to juggle is what people do as they transition from one project to another, especially if hiring ramped up to finish a game. Given Levine's post about needing a long period of design, it just wouldn't make sense to have a bunch of artists or engineers sitting around with nothing to do yet.

It seems like they're taking care of the people Levine isn't bringing along for his new venture so that's pretty awesome. But it does suck since as far as I know there aren't TOO many game development studios out there for an easy transition so a lot of people probably need to move.

Last edited by fumanstan; 02-18-14 at 01:15 PM.
Old 02-18-14, 01:56 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Interesting. Like others, I thought the Bioshock games were great, but Irrational didn't seem to put out much. What Ken plans on doing sounds good, and it appears he's taking the people he wants from Irrational's team, so at least it doesn't seem all bad.
Old 02-18-14, 02:00 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Although I am surprised Levine didn't just go and create a new team, and leave Irrational with a new studio head pumping out Bioshock sequels/games.
Old 02-18-14, 02:00 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

This quote from the statement is the most interesting to me:
To foster the most direct relationship with our fans possible, we will focus exclusively on content delivered digitally.
Coupled with the Cliff Bleszinski interview just released today in which he says " "I'll never make another disc-based game for the rest of my career," it seems pretty clear which way the winds are blowing.
Old 02-18-14, 02:22 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Maybe that means he's going to make "Match 3" iPad games, because that's apparently where the big money is these days.
Old 02-18-14, 03:10 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by fumanstan
Although I am surprised Levine didn't just go and create a new team, and leave Irrational with a new studio head pumping out Bioshock sequels/games.
This is what surprises me too. I am not surprised that Levine wants to move on, but usually when you've built something like this there is a plan to transition the management/studio so that it could continue on. I would be surprised if the entire studio feels that it's time to move on. I'm not saying they needed to continue making Bioschock games, but surely the studio could have continued to thrive and moved on without Levine at the helm.
Old 02-18-14, 04:14 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by Groucho
Maybe that means he's going to make "Match 3" iPad games, because that's apparently where the big money is these days.
And i'd be fine with that as long as it gets him funding for a future game that he gets to work on.
Old 02-18-14, 04:18 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by MoviePage
Coupled with the Cliff Bleszinski interview just released today in which he says " "I'll never make another disc-based game for the rest of my career," it seems pretty clear which way the winds are blowing.
Yeah, I'm really getting pessimistic about the future of gaming.
Old 02-18-14, 04:33 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Why? We will "always" have AAA games. We will also have people that have worked on AAA games move on release indie games. Too lazy to link the article, but someone mentioned examples, like "Gone Home", created by someone that used to work on AAA games.
Old 02-18-14, 04:42 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by Drexl
Yeah, I'm really getting pessimistic about the future of gaming.
As long as games like GTA V can sell 29 Million copies on two console systems in the first six weeks, we're still going to have AAA games coming to consoles. Maybe fewer of them, but that's not always such a terrible thing.
Old 02-18-14, 04:59 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Well, we'll have derivatives/sequels of AAA games (not saying that GTA V was just a cash in, as I've never played it) as long as people keep buying them. Games like Bioshock and Dead Space kinda came out of nowhere (to me, at least) in a good way, and we'll see how many new IPs come about with the consolidation of studios and the expense/politics of making big games.
Old 02-18-14, 05:01 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

What defines a AAA title? Would Dead Space be considered a AAA title? What about Fallout 3?
Old 02-18-14, 05:53 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by fujishig
Well, we'll have derivatives/sequels of AAA games (not saying that GTA V was just a cash in, as I've never played it) as long as people keep buying them. Games like Bioshock and Dead Space kinda came out of nowhere (to me, at least) in a good way, and we'll see how many new IPs come about with the consolidation of studios and the expense/politics of making big games.
This doesn't worry me, at least in the foreseeable future. The new console generation already seems to have a steady stream of new IPs with a lot of hype behind them, like Titanfall, The Order, Destiny.

As much as some developers want to escape the big budge productions and work on smaller scale projects and have more control over them, there are still plenty of studios out there making big, large scale games that want to push limits.
Old 02-19-14, 12:15 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by DaveyJoe
What defines a AAA title? Would Dead Space be considered a AAA title? What about Fallout 3?
Yes, both are AAA titles.

Bigger teams, bigger budget, more development time, more publicity, etc. All of that, or a combination, defines a AAA title.
Old 02-19-14, 01:52 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by fumanstan
This doesn't worry me, at least in the foreseeable future. The new console generation already seems to have a steady stream of new IPs with a lot of hype behind them, like Titanfall, The Order, Destiny.

As much as some developers want to escape the big budge productions and work on smaller scale projects and have more control over them, there are still plenty of studios out there making big, large scale games that want to push limits.
I'm more worried about the future of single-player experiences, to be honest. With things like Titanfall going multiplayer only and a push to MMOs with Elder Scrolls, not to mention co-op being shoehorned into formerly single-player IPs like Resident Evil and Dead Space, it's sad to lose one of the developers who really 'got' single player games and pushed the format.

I am looking forward to The Order but it's telling about the direction AAA gaming is going that one of the games you mentioned will seemingly offer a diluted experience to single players and the other offers no single player experience at all.
Old 02-19-14, 01:56 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

That's weird, I thought Destiny was online only.
Old 02-19-14, 02:03 PM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by DRG
I'm more worried about the future of single-player experiences, to be honest. With things like Titanfall going multiplayer only and a push to MMOs with Elder Scrolls, not to mention co-op being shoehorned into formerly single-player IPs like Resident Evil and Dead Space, it's sad to lose one of the developers who really 'got' single player games and pushed the format.

I am looking forward to The Order but it's telling about the direction AAA gaming is going that one of the games you mentioned will seemingly offer a diluted experience to single players and the other offers no single player experience at all.
I can see where you're coming from, but I don't think anything is telling about Destiny or Titanfall given that the games are coming from developers who are responsible for two of the biggest multiplayer franchises in recent memory with Halo and Call of Duty.

I agree with you about losing one a studio that really concentrated on a great single player, and stuff like Square Enix talking about Tomb Raider's early disappointing sales worries me, but I'd also say some of the most satisfying single player experiences have come in the last couple years with The Walking Dead, Tomb Raider, Last of Us and I hope that publishers see that.

This is where I can see why some of the successful developers are shying away from the AAA titles, where companies feel the need to monetize everything to justify the big budget games, which means an online/multiplayer component over single player.
Old 02-20-14, 10:10 AM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by Raul3
He's tired of AAA. Remember the issue about the cover? That he had to waste time on that is crazy. I'm sure there are a lot of things like that, that made Ken take this decision.
So transition the leadership to someone else and take your favorite people and go start something else. "I'm tired of this, so you're all fired" is a dick move, and completely ignores the disruption to the lives of the people that have helped make him so successful.
Old 02-20-14, 10:22 AM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

I think they were laid off, not fired. Big difference.

I just say this as a person who wishes he was getting laid off
Old 02-20-14, 10:23 AM
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Re: Irrational Games (Bioshock, Infinite) Shutting Down

Originally Posted by Breakfast with Girls
So transition the leadership to someone else and take your favorite people and go start something else. "I'm tired of this, so you're all fired" is a dick move, and completely ignores the disruption to the lives of the people that have helped make him so successful.
A lot of speculation out there is that there's no way Levine himself could make that call, and there's probably more to it involving 2K since they would be the actual owners of the studio. Probably unfair to blame Levine alone.

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