BioShock Developer Irrational Games Is Dissolving

@monkeyking1969: I do agree you have some valid points with that armchair theorising. Speaking as a business major I'd estimate you've covered only about 15% of the real life possibilities and complications.

I'm curious what Pachter will end up saying on his next show.

I will follow Ken wherever. But this still whomps.

Bioshock Infinite was a mediocre and disjointed game that was a shadow of what it had been sold as. The further it recedes into the distance, the more I'm confident people will recognize that. Levine's disillusionment is one piece of the puzzle.

I don't think Levine owes anything to the employees of Irrational. Your boss doesn't owe you the continued existence of his business; he can quit any time, just like you. His responsibility to them is a fair warning, which is the same responsibility you have as an employee if you plan to quit. Though if you're in the middle of an important project, you should probably finish it first.

If they (this was probably not Levine's sole decision) thought the studio was viable after being gutted of its best creatives, they wouldn't have shuttered it. The rank-and-file get to put Bioshock Infinite on their resume as the last thing they made, which despite my thoughts on it was hugely popular with critics and the general public. Levine did right by them, more or less.

What the hell...

Sounds like a very selfish decision.

I feel conflicted because this seems like an exotic way to do a layoff and it actually be the most sensible and humane way of doing it. Instead of stringing people out for months scrounging around for a new thing to work on just to have something to work on that the heads really aren't interested in and possibly end up with a layoff anyway leaving people freaking out, just be blunt and scrap the whole company and start over.

I'd like to see whether or not some of the people who got fired go off and create their own studio/Kickstarter deal. Certainly there were plenty of talented people there who can go off and accomplish their own wonders without Mister Levine's curious bindings.

I wonder what Levine and his team will do with smaller-scale projects. I've always felt like the Bioshock games were actually pretty broad in their gameplay and narrative. Despite their reputation for being daring and intelligent they would introduce interesting topics and then stop short of mining them for any real social commentary. Maybe now that Levine's projects won't have huge budgets and equally huge sales expectations, he can take on some projects that are a more risky and creative, rather than being blockbuster shooters hiding behind the veneer of being a thought-provoking or innovative video game.

I have read multiple times that 2K will have assisting those who have gotten laid-off into other development teams, and I have doubts that people with the Bioshock games on their resume will have trouble finding paid work again. Maybe we will know if Ken gave his team due warning of this thing of occurring eventually, maybe not. If he didn't, then my opinion of him definitely decreases by quite a bit.
I am slightly concerned about the Bioshock license entering non-Irrational hands though. I hope that 2K will find a way to do right by the franchise.
It'll be interesting to see what happens with Ken and his new team can come up with, seeing as it sounds like as though, by straying out of AAA territory, they should be free to make a game that's not an FPS. This is especially interesting considering all of the discussion Infinite generated about the place of violence within that game. It's unfortunate that some of the stuff that was being shown in demos (decisions to engage with enemies or not, more decisions with Elizabeth (anyone else remember that horse?)) never really came to fruition, probably due to how safe AAA titles usually have to play it.

It seems a bit stupid to gut a successful large studio because of one guys idea. Couldnt they have kept irrational and given it to another person?

Bummed out all those people lost their jobs, that sucks and it seems to be for a stupid selfish reason.

I dont even care what he's trying to make now. I wasn't impressed by Bioshock infinite at all. (well the setting and atmosphere was good)

This is so unfortunate, and it's sad how quickly this will likely be swept under our attention. Heck, some outlets are already talking excitedly about what Ken Levine may be doing next.

This is terrible for the developers who saw their hardwork rewarded with a pink slip like all too many developers in the industry today. They may be able to go on to other studios(likely in other cities, states, or even countries) or form their own smaller studios to make games, but they're still going to have to fight to make the best of a bad situation. And this is certainly a bad situation no matter how 2K may want to spin it. I'm sure Levine and 2K Games can feel a bit of warmth with thoughts about all of the skilled people who have recovered from mass firings in the past to still make great games elsewhere, but the reality appears to be that this is yet another instance of people losing their jobs because of the lack of security in gaming industry jobs.

There may be many talented people who make the best of the industry's job insecurity, but it's a problem for the real people working hard for companies only to see their future suddenly uncertain and their lives likely uprooted. People working in the game industry deserve better than this, and unfortunately, the conversation after this will likely be more about what Ken Levine will be doing next. Because the people leaving are likely under contract and still want to work in the industry, so they don't get much of a voice. Their side is far underrepresented, and the loss here will probably be forgotten in a few days as people covering this will just move on and focus on the next big game.

Yet these are real people who appear to have been done a great disservice by their company, and in an industry afraid of unions and more interested in promoting the individual public faces of developers than the majority of the people who really make the games happen, this is just another instance of a problem that deserves more investigation and coverage than it gets. It's ridiculous how disposable this industry often treats people in it, and in this case, it's even happening to developers who have helped give their parent company tremendous critical and financial success. What motivation is there to invest so much in a company and its games if you know they're probably just going to toss you aside whether the result is good or not? Game developers and gamers suffer from companies treating their workers like this.

Hopefully, as suggested at the end of the article, Patrick and Alex will investigate further and not accept the usual outcome of press releases and public faces like Levine successfully stealing the focus from the problem represented in the many Irrational developers now out of a job. They may be able to make the best of a bad situation, but it is still a bad situation that deserves more attention. Our focus may usually be on the games, but those who work hard for years to make those games are important, as well.

@milkman said:

Yeah it's the second video game industry crash. As much as I hate to say it, I really don't care if that be the case. The feeling I got from video games for most of my life has gone. The last generation was a huge transformation into something I didn't want to see. Ideas should always strive to better themselves, innovation if possible, refinement as necessary. Not become some withered husk of a former self. Instead of too many games being blown onto the market, too many companies have become so paralyzed by fear of rejection and lost money they've created a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure.

I say crash because the system we have known for the last couple decades is at an end. Thankfully though there is one to replace it. And its transition has been going quite smooth.

Completely agree.

It almost comes off as "I'm bored now. I will chose the 15 that will their jobs, the rest of you can fuck off"

Bioshock was one of my core go-to series, this sucks. I loved all of the games in the series, I don't think there will anything quite like it again. RIP

I doubt it was really Ken Levine's idea; seems like more of a 2K move that he went along with.

It was more likely:

"Ken, you're the only one we really care about at Irrational; the rest are pretty disposable to us. So, stay on here, grab a few of your favorites, and release a statement to draw attention away from our big layoff."

Words, mouth, took. Even as a business decision, 2K gutting a successful dev is pretty dim. Dev hell aside, a dev that can still ship a game is a valuable asset.

rip Irrational games without Ken Levine!

Irrational was fully owned by 2k, there's no tax dodge to be gotten here.

Given how game development goes, having a 200 person staff for a game that was going to take another 2 to 3 years to ramp up to needing that many people was never going to be sustainable.

Speculation: It's possible that it was intended to be a two game studio and whatever their "off-year" project was got canned, suddenly guys and women who were prepared to shift to doing art and finish design work on a second game had nothing to work on.

I'm sad to see so many people lose their jobs in one fell swoop, especially in my home state, but the other reality of current game development is that there's more room than ever for new small studios to form and for people to be able to create outside of the studio and publisher structure. There are worse places to have to start a company than Massachusetts as well, there's an availability of investment capital and knowledgeable base of workers, and as you pointed out a lot of studios doing a lot of things that will help to absorb these developers.

Hopefully we'll be seeing the next game like Gone Home from them soon.

And maybe Backbone will decide to reopen their Framingham studio now that they're flush with Amazon cash.

Ken should have gone on to form a feature film animation studio. The parts of Infinite that dragged it down was the gameplay being shoe horned in. He wants to tell great stories with beautiful visuals, there is another medium where he can do that.

At some point Take Two has got to comment on this in some way. I can't imagine their shareholders are going to stomach this without some kind of explanation. It just doesn't seem to add up, Irrational by most accounts was successful and adding value so it seems crazy that Take Two would allow it to be suddenly closed on Levine's word alone. Take Two had to be involved in the decision and this isn't something that happens overnight.

Dingdingding

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/211139/Irrational_Games_journalism_and_airing_dirty_laundry.php

No one talks to the games press officially. I wish they did, but I get it. They want to keep their jobs. Let's just say multiple people within a studio were willing to risk their careers to confirm to me that yes, in fact, if their game didn't sell extremely well, like exponentially more than its predecessor or "well" according to a matrix of time and cost investment and desired profit, that their studio would be closed in a year.

(4-6 year development, at least 4m sales, yeah this all checks out.)

Irrational is a part of 2k.

I so get the feeling there is a reason for this that someone isn't telling us. I don't think it's Infinite secretly doing poorly. 2K already said it exceeded their expectations. Looking at the sales figures I can't help but believe them. If they had anything much higher, they would have been delusional.

Still, I'm sure Ken wouldn't just knowingly fire 185 people or so.

What are you talking about?, 2K closed Marin just last year.

No, it can't, Massachusetts has a healthcare law ("Romneycare") that requires employers with 10 full time employees to provide a healthcare option to employees. Unless he moves to Rhode Island. If he does that, fuck him. All defenses are meaningless.

Schilling did that, and now he's got cancer. I'm not saying there's a connection...but...ALIENS.

This pretty much confirms no Bioshock Vita, right?

The thing is it's not Ken Levine doing any of the firing, since they are technically not his employees to fire. He himself is an employee of the same studio, which now belongs to Take Two. I'm certain there is more to the story but it's very doubtful that it was completely Levine's call in getting rid of all those people. The game industry is a volatile place and I think anyone working in it is always aware of the fact that studios close and the need to shuffle from project to project.

I understand he doesn't, but if surely he would know that him leaving would result in the studio dissolving. I don't think he'd just leave knowing that him leaving resulted in 185 or whatever people getting fired, easily. He'd probably do all he can to stop that. Right? Some information there is missing.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/211139/Irrational_Games_journalism_and_airing_dirty_laundry.php

Well, it seems like there was nothing that could be saved. After reading the article however, I wonder why the 15 other people are leaving to work with Ken...sounds like jumping out of a pot into the fire.