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BioShock Developer Irrational Games Is Dissolving

Studio head Ken Levine plans to start a new, smaller team at 2K following the dissolution of the current development team.

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BioShock Infinite developer Irrational Games is shutting down, according to a post on the company's official website this morning.

Though the current Irrational team is still putting the finishing touches on BioShock Infinite's last piece of DLC--the second episode in the Burial At Sea storyline--that content will apparently be the last thing the team produces in its current incarnation. In the posting on the company site, studio head and creative director Ken Levine explained the reasoning behind the studio's eventual closure.

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.

Levine goes on to explain that his new team's goal will be to "make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable," and "foster the most direct relationship with our fans possible" by focusing exclusively on digitally delivered content.

Irrational Games was founded in 1997 by Levine, alongside Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier, all of whom worked together previously at System Shock developer Looking Glass Studios. Over the course of its 17-year history, the studio produced seven titles, including System Shock 2, Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich, and SWAT 4. Of course, its biggest hits were its two games in the BioShock franchise, which garnered the studio both critical acclaim and strong sales. According to Levine, the BioShock franchise will now be in the hands of publisher 2K Games, as his new, smaller team begins work on whatever it has planned next.

There is no word yet on exactly how many people will be laid off as a result of the developer's dissolution. As of 2012, Levine had cited the studio as having around 200 employees, though that may have changed in the time since.

We'll bring you more on this developing story as it becomes available.

Alex Navarro on Google+

233 Comments

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MrKlorox

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Edited By MrKlorox

Well, I'm sure anybody with a credit on a Bioshock game won't have too incredibly much trouble getting a new position in the industry, or coverage if they start new indie studio. Steve Gaynor rode that wave for a good while.

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HS_Alpha_Wolf

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What the hell is a "core gamer"?

The kind of people who know what you are talking about when you bring up System Shock, BioShock, or Ken Levine

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Spiritof

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It would also be great if Levine would come out and say that it's because of Obamacare.

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Lomilias

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Wow, thats a shocker. I really hope 2K treat the Bioshock franchise with respect, or even better; put it in the books. No Ken Levine, no Bioshock.

I'm excited to see what the new company comes up with though!

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LegalBagel

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Edited By LegalBagel

I find it strange that Ken decided to kill the studio and fire everyone instead of just forming a new, smaller studio and handing the reins at Irrational to someone else. I suppose it would have gutted Irrational to take away it's creative leader and 15 of its (likely) best employees, but that seems like a better result than killing the studio entirely and letting almost everyone go because the leader wants to do something new. Though someone has to work on whatever Take Two wants to do with Bioshock, so maybe those remaining employees will end up sticking around to do that.

Regardless, I am very interested in what Ken decides to do next. You could tell he was constrained in how he told his stories and the gameplay within because he was making a big budget AAA game. He all but admitted that Bioshock is a shooter because you need to make a shooter for people to buy it and hear his story. Unshackled from the requirements of big budget game development, they could do some fun stuff with story and gameplay, instead of standard gameplay with a big idea story/world.

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The_Nubster

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I think it's gross to announce your new studio in the same release that you mention all the people you're firing.

I'm all for Ken starting a new studio but he doesn't need to announce it in the same breath as this. Poorly done.

The reason he's closing Irrational is to start a new studio. They're intertwined, basically the same piece of news. how else would he have done it? if he announced it with time in between, people would begin to wonder about why Irrational was being closed and jump to awful conclusions about Ken, his team, his works and 2K as a publisher. It's better to get it all out into the open in one statement so no one is left wondering.

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striderno9

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Edited By striderno9

Wow, pretty crazy sis. (I know). It would have been nice to split the team in two, Ken's smaller team and a bigger one, but I suppose that wouldn't make much financial sense. Also @chazzlabs a 'core gamer is just short hand for a hardcore gamer, what that means is up for debate but it usually means people that make gaming as a major priority in their lives. Sometimes it's used to describe the types of gamers that come to and frequent sites like Giant Bomb, although many other variations exist. I know you were probably being sarcastic but I wanted to ignore that for the moment.

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ArbitraryWater

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This is just opening the door for Ken Levine to make the weird artsy games he clearly wants to make, right?

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Oldirtybearon

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Edited By Oldirtybearon

This is fucking stupid.

I get that things went off the rails during development of Infinite and that the studio needed to refocus and figure out what they wanted to do next, but closing the whole circus down because one guy wants to do something else?

Fuck sakes.

silver lining: Shawn Elliott can probably make more time for podcasts now.

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CaLe

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Edited By CaLe

interest for see what come of this development. more number of small game maybe it isn't it? can be good for me.

edit: it's a big shock.

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thebarrylad

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This is really weird. Ken's statement is basically that he wants to downsize for creative reasons; which would be a baffling reason to fire that many people in any day and age but in the current climate? Those people aren't exactly just going to walk in to another booming developer (some will, perhaps).

So, either that's BS and there's more too this... or an incredibly tactless decision was just made.

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yinstarrunner

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WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? This is crazy news. CRAZY.

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Spiritof

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Edited By Spiritof

It'll be interesting to see who Levine's 15 disciples end up being.

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VarrosAnon

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I think it's gross to announce your new studio in the same release that you mention all the people you're firing.

I'm all for Ken starting a new studio but he doesn't need to announce it in the same breath as this. Poorly done.

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dorkymohr

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Hopefully the transition for those employees goes well. The nature of the dissolving would suggest that this wasn't a sudden thing so I'm hopeful. And I can at least appreciate Ken and the team's ability to know when it's time to move on, in a time where a lot of AAA developers and publishers just seem to get more and more bloated.

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chazzlabs

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Edited By chazzlabs

What the hell is a "core gamer"?

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parabolee

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Oh my. I'm not sure what to think about this. Ken's small team might end up making even better games (and more of them). But closing the studio that made what is probably my third favourite game OF ALL TIME before they can make a follow up?!?!! (didn't have to be a new Bioshock).

Kind gutted. Sad for those losing their jobs! Irrational Games was amazing!

Good luck to everyone!

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YarHar707

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Considering how much they spent on the BI through its development hell, it's not surprising they had to turn it into a super linear CoD reskin in the last year and market it heavily to the fratboy audience to try to recoup those losses.

Guess it's better for them to go out now before they make more garbage. Bio1 is still by far their greatest work in both gameplay, story and atmosphere.

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irishalwaystake

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"BioShock has generated retail revenues of over 500 million"

"Oh btw you're all fired, now fuck off, I need to make a 2deep4u walking sim"

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The_Vein

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Edited By The_Vein

@gorillamopena: Well, this is pretty much all that needs to be said. Everyone stop commenting now please.

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timeshero

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Edited By timeshero
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Wilshere

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Maybe we can understand what happened in the studio by listening to audio logs.

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Milkman

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Edited By Milkman

This is what the future of games is going to look like. Big studios do nothing but hinder creativity and add unnecessary obstacles that get in the way of creating great games. Small studios of talented, creative people is how the medium is going to be pushed forward.

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FinalDasa

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Edited By FinalDasa

Wow. That was sudden.

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alwaysbeclothing

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Tragic for all the people who are now looking for new jobs. I hope that the bioshock pedigree on their resume speeds them to new studios.

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nightriff

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Hey Alex, there is a thread about this already. Should lock this article down.

Kidding

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Donos

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Edited By Donos

Makes sense, the main strengths of the the Bioshock games seemed at odds with the necessity of being a Big Triple A Action Blockbuster Game, hopefully a smaller studio will let him focus on the stuff that actually matters in whatever game they make.

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JayCee

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Super gross.

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Chummy8

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beef5layer

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Yeah, rip.

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matt_f606

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Edited By matt_f606

Sucks for the guys getting laid-off but it will be interesting to see what Ken does with smaller projects.

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InternetDotCom

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pretty irrational decision if you ask me

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IndustryApologist

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Wait a minute... THAT STUDIO