BioShock Developer Irrational Games Is Dissolving

Sounds interesting. I'm looking forward to what they'll do next. I just hope they don't end up making shitty mobile games.

SWAT 5 coming to iOS in 2016.

I'm pretty sure there is more to this story, so I'm not gonna be disgusted by Levine for doing this. But still, this is bananas.

Levine taking his hand-picked crew for his new endeavor from Irrational and shutting the studio down on everyone else makes it come across as Levine tearing the "heart" out of Irrational and abandoning the body.

It is possible that reasons that can't exactly be made public contributed to the closure of Irrational, but that's what Levine's statement sounds like to me. Which is unfortunate if there are other reasons at play that aren't Levine gutting Irrational for his new desires.

Not a big surprise when you think about it.

2K spent a lot of money on this game. I'm not sure what they expected, but Infinite wasn't exactly a safe bet. It changed so much every time we saw it, it seemed more like a series of ideas rather than a complete game.

And after 2K saw the finished game that Bioshock Infinite ended up being, they spent millions on marketing to salvage the game and make sure that people thought it was a blockbuster, big-budget FPS. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what Rod Fergusson was brought in for, to pad out the game with action-sequences to make some sort of game of it, because Levine had run out of stamina to finish whatever he started. The interviews Levine did leading up to the launch of Infinite, you can clearly see that he's had it.

Regardless of what happened with Bioshock Infinite, I sort of figured that Ken Levine was done. It's unlikely that we'll see any publisher spend this kind of money on a game like Infinite again. Expect more safe bets in the future at this scale.

Anyway, thanks Irrational for all the great games. I don't think any of you will have trouble finding new jobs and I hope something good comes out of this eventually.

Screw whatever Ken's 'new team' (comprised of the 15 lucky people who didn't get the boot) come up with. You don't fire your entire team just because you're bored. If this is 2K Games' doing, then things are much worse than we first imagined. This is the one dev that should never have fallen into this type of situation. I mean come on, we get amazing games and lose a dev, yet Gearbox manages to put out the cesspool scam of a game, Alien CM and they're still around. But hey guys, he's making a 'core game' for all those CoD fratboy fucks who didn't buy Bioshock. And it's with a small team, so we can be sorta-indie. And it's going to have a story and be replayable, that way we can sell you more shit. Seriously Ken, we can see through the bullshit. Stop lying on Twitter.

It's kind of rotten to just lay off the majority of your studio just because you want to do something else. Why can't he just leave and take a few members and then let someone else fill his spot? Why does the studio even need to be closed down in the first place?

I think this is the best possible thing Levine could have done after Bioshock Infinite. The path that he was taking lead to bloated games with too much money in them trying to appeal to as many disparate tastes as possible. With a tighter focus he can make games that aren't so bland and uncontroversial. I'm excited to see what kind of stories he can come up with now that he can more easily put his own fingerprint on the game.

@kkotd said:

There's a whole lot of assumin' goin' on in this post.

What are you even talking about?

People completely take this the wrong way.

This is just the right thing to do for Ken Levine. In fact, I predicted this in my masters thesis that I finished two months ago (title: "Interactive Narratives: New Approaches to Storytelling in Videogames"). Ken Levine is a story-teller, a creator, and it was very clear that especially with Bioshock Infinite, his vision crumbled under the weight of a triple-A production. Even in interviews he seemed very bothered by the responsibility that comes with leading such a huge project. He had to make lots of creative compromises because of that and it was clear he wasn't happy about it. He needed to break out of that extremely constrained framework and that is exactly what he is doing now. I say good for him and I can't wait for his next work.

Overall, the firing of the hundred or more people really sucks. I hope those folks get picked up as soon as possible, as i am sure they are very talented folks. Otherwise, this will hopefully allow Ken to continue making really great video games.

Well I thought Bioshock Infinite was a mess and was nothing like any of the games that it's a successor to (Bioshock and System Shock), so I'm glad for this in a way. Levine is alright at what he does and all, but I think Infinite was just another run of the mill shooter with a twist and some good art design thrown in. Add that to the nonsensical story that feels up it's own ass at points and it just becomes a very meh product. Hopefully this will give Levine some breathing room when it comes to creativity and he can actually give us a game that isn't pandering to the lowest common denominator. Still does suck about all those people losing their jobs though and I hope with them having a critical darling like Infinite under their belt they get picked up by someone quick.

I was initially really surprised at this, considering the critical and commercial success they received for their last game Bioshock Infinite. But I can't say that this came out of nowhere though, I have been listening to their sporadic but excellent podcast and Levine said on several occasions that he misses the times when he was working in a small team. He misses the entrepreneurial feeling like he says. Those podcasts were mainly recorded pre-Bioshock Infinite. I only have good wishes for everyone that has been laid off, but I don't think they would have any problem finding new jobs.

SWAT 4 was really good.

But I highly doubt Levine culled his studio down to a hand-picked few to work on anything they've already done.

I'm not too worried about the folks looking for new work. Bioshock/Irrational was regarded well enough that they'll probably find spots in other teams easily enough.

Maybe they should form their own studio and make something that outstrips Levine's next project.

BTW, dug this up. Kinda sad. Winning awards today, getting fired tomorrow!

Calling Infinite a mess seems a bit disingenuous to me. Don't like the game? That's fine, but a mess? Personally, I enjoyed most of my time with it and don't think the story is "nonsensical and up it's own ass". At any rate, if Infinite is a mess to you, I'd like to know what you consider a good and solid game. You know, to get my bearings.

Bioshock 1 was linear also and BI was nothing like COD. Pretty harsh to say that its a positive thing that they are closing man. Where's your empathy?

Guess it's a way to break away from expectations and free oneself from the shackles of past successes. Bold step. I hope everybody lands on their feet, and that whatever comes next from Ken Levine and Associates, as well as for Bioshock, is something I want to spend time on.

If this doesn't somehow lead to a SWAT 5, then fuck videogames forever.

It really sucks that people are losing their jobs, but for anybody to badmouth Ken Levine seems a bit classless, since we really don't know all the details that went into this decision.

I doubt he took a decision like this lightly. And he may not have been the only one to have a say in this.

@rvone: Bioshock Infinite was the definition of a mess. Mess doesn't necessarily mean totally bad, but the development was a mess and what we got was a a shooter with an artstyle. I felt the atmosphere of Columbia wore off as soon as I was shooting random soldiers. For the record I think out of the "Bioshock" series System Shock 2 is probably the best gameplay and story-wise. It had the most interesting mechanics, dying actually mattered, the most interesting story, and the best atmosphere. I wouldn't say Bioshock Infinite isn't a solid game because it is. There is nothing inherently wrong with it, but it just feels like the same shooters we get constantly with some Bioshock powers thrown in(which were all way too similar because most had a stun of some type or were useless) and a really terrific art style. It has it's good point sure, it isn't a bad game and I never said it was. It was just all over the place and didn't feel like it knew what it wanted to be, except for another Bioshock game of some sort. Also whether you liked the story or not has nothing to do with it being nonsensical because that game's story made zero sense. You can pull out the argument that any story with this kind of time travel/parallel universes has that, but I've seen Moffat episodes of Doctor Who that made more sense than Infinite.

From neogaf:

Originally Posted by Zombie James

So Ken Levine wants to work on a new game with a smaller team, so the solution is to shut the company down and fire all but 15 people?

No, Take-Two told him he couldn't keep the studio going as is and offered him this as the only option to keep anyone on board, but obviously he's not going to say that publicly.

They didn't mention BioShock Infinite in their recent fiscal report. It's pretty obvious it was not up to expectations sales wise and they're unwilling to keep going with Irrational's cost structure and dev lengths.

so no announcement for Bioshock Infinite Vita game? Not even a new Freedom Force?

Firstly, I doubt this was Ken Levine going "yeah, nobody else gets to run Irrational." Probably what happened was a long series of meetings about what Irrational was going to do next, and the result of those meetings may have been that 2K didn't share their vision for the future, or perhaps Irrational didn't have a vision for the future. Irrational's gone through so many staff in the development of Infinite that there might not be a structure there that someone can simply step up into Levine's role. Infinite appears to have been so troubled a development that there may be problems throughout Irrational, that it doesn't have the manoeuvrability to shift away from making these crazy Bioshock games.

Besides all that Ken Levine doesn't own Irrational, Take-Two does. It's not his to shut down, it's theirs. They obviously came to the decision that what's left at a Levine-less Irrational wasn't of value in and of itself. Honestly, I liked Infinite a lot, but I kind of think it's a miracle that it ever fell into shape. My impression of Irrational is that it's a studio of immensely talented people, riddled with the absolute terror that the thing they are making might just fall apart at any moment, and if it did, what would they be left with?

Not a big surprise when you think about it.

I'm saying as soon as Levine was contractually done with Bioshock Infinite, it was obvious he was going to move away from big-budget games. During interviews, he was talking about doing something else, moving on. Seemed mostly irritated about questions regarding the DLC for Infinite and happily talked about writing his movie script instead. Never seemed like he wanted to go through the process of making a game that big again.

It sucks that a lot of people are out of a job but hopefully they'll be able to find some work soon. Also, let's not get on the blame Levine train just yet since we don't know all the details. That said, I seriously doubt he wanted to fire all of those people. If he could have, he probably would have just left and said hire somebody else to run Irrational. As far as 2K is concerned, Levin probably is Irrational to them so if he leaves, no point in keeping anyone else I guess. As much as it would suck, how much more would it suck to have Levine stuck there working on some AAA game for another 4-5 years that he hates? He was already hard to work with before according to a number of people so imagine what it would like be now. Wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of people quit at that point. It's a shitty situation but I'm trying to stay positive and view this as an opportunity for not just Levine and his new smaller team but also everyone who got layed off to be able to move on and hopefully work on some new interesting things.

There's no source for that; it's speculation on the poster's part.

"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."

This has a source: Ken Levine himself.

This is pretty huge news. I'm not going to pretend to understand the exact logistics as to how or why this is happening,but from where I'm sitting, it seems pretty shitty for the entire studio to close and for over 150 people to be laid off just because Levine wants to do something else. I don't see why that has to happen. It would be nice if Irrational could still remain in a scaled-back form and be allowed to make what they want.

Until we hear more from Levine himself, I wouldn't go jumping to conclusions just yet. However, I have serious doubts that 2K execs had nothing to do with this. If it was just Levine saying fuck everyone else then I'm sure he'll have more to say on this himself later on because why would there be NDAs on this if it wasn't a business decision but just a personal decision by him?

edit: Remeber that 2K have done a Bioshock game without Levine before. I reckon if they really wanted to keep all those people and have them work on another Bioshock game without Levine and whoever he takes with him, they could. It's not like Levine has the final say and could stop them.

Bioshock: Infinite went through chaos in development, Ken commissioned the entire game to be made again.

That is not in any way the definition of a "mess". Not to mention the fact that in the same paragraph, you said it was a "solid game". Which kind of contradicts the whole mess thing. And it's also your opinion that the story made no sense. I thought it made as much sense as it needed to.

Closing Irrational seems a little extreme, there's the option of down-sizing the studio. Best of luck for all involved

Now that I can get behind. It was all the speculation and theorizing on things that no one knows for sure that had me a little unnerved.

Infinite had so much potential and it ended up as a boring shooter in a setting that somehow had less freedom than Rapture. I liked the music though.

Well that is one way to avoid developing another Bioshock sequel.

@jsnyder82: It was a mess in development though and what we got was a mishmash of ideas all thrown into a bland shooter which makes it a mess because you can't really tell what it's trying to be. I wasn't saying the basic mechanics of the game were a mess or broken. I was saying the game altogether and everything involving it leading up to it's release was a mess. Also it is in no way an opinion that the story made no sense. It's fine to like the story or think it's good, but it still doesn't make any sense at all. Yeah it can make as much sense as it needs to for you to think it's a good or fun or interesting story, but it in no way makes sense from an objective point of view. A story containing huge holes and not having consistent logic has nothing to do with opinions and there's nothing subjective about it.

Whaaaaaaaaa?

Okay, here's a thought. Maybe most of Irrational was built to make Infinite, and Levine is just cutting off the fat in order to make a new type of game. What good is talent specializing in big budget linear shooters when the studio is trying to make a different game? It sucks for the people losing their jobs, but does the world need more linear FPS games?

I don't feel like the excerpt does this justice. It sounds like the departing team will have a lot of time to puck their ducks in a row, and they're doing a lot to help the team transition, including the possibility of finding new positions within Take-Two and providing something like a job fair.

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 3^rd party studios and publishers a chance to hold interviews with departing Irrational staff.

It's obviously not an ideal situation for many people that may be affected by this, but it's not as bad as it would normally be in the industry. Even then, the video game production model is going to have to change soon. We're likely to see a lot of upheaval in this upcoming gen.

These guys know they just made Bioshock Infinite right? They could have kept going.

I wonder what's next?

Why is everyone blaming Ken for the studio closing? Has no one stopped to think that Irrational without Ken Levine and his top 15 isn't worth 2Ks money? I highly doubt the rest of the studio is capable of delivering AAA profits without their top people.

18-35 year old white male

Duh.

Ken Levine is a selfish piece of trash. Another artist who thinks his creativity is stifled by the industry that made him. All those people who just lost a job and now don't know how to provide for their families. Yeah they might have jobs open but they gonna have to move. And you don't ever want to put your family through this kind of uncertainty. So let Levine enjoy his cup of coffee this morning and not care.

I'll be incredibly surprised if this was actually Ken Levin's first choice. Those of you in a fiery rage right now with the assumption that Ken grabbed his 15 best pals and left 2K middle fingers in the air seem to already have beef with him and want a reason to shit on him.

Yeah, I went off the rails a bit more than I had to. Sorry about that. Of course I can't say for sure what Rod Fergusson specifically contributed or how much influence 2K had on the development of the game, these are just speculations on my part. I do however base my theories on how the industry usually works. It's very predictable, unfortunately.