BioShock Developer Irrational Games Is Dissolving

that season pass

Man, there is a ton of rampant speculation that people are taking for the absolute truth about something that was only just announced, that always had a habit of working out in the end right?

sweet, good gameplay will finally return to the Bioshock franchise.

So where exactly is it stated what everyone just seems to assume, that Ken Levine is responsible for the closing of Irrational? Does the head of what once was called 2k Boston even have the power to fire dozens of people who in practice, I presume, were employed at 2k and not at Irrational?

I think with the loss of Irrational I'm most bummed that we'll probably never see another Freedom Force (although we probably wouldn't have anyway). I've had my fill of Bioshock, but I absolutely loved the FF series and always wished they'd return to give it a new take.

To those questioning why he wouldn't just quit and leave the studio open, if he quit and took his top 15 developers with him, why the hell would Take Two keep the studio open? It's a costly studio that they were willing to fund because of the exceptional talent behind it. Remove much of the top talent and remove the need for the studio. Boston is not a cheap place to work and the government there doesn't offer any incentives to game developers. If they want a dedicated Bioshock team they aren't going to keep it in Boston if you remove all the leads from Irrational. They would close the studio and open a new one in Canada where the government will subsidize costs and the actual cost of living is much lower.

I don't think that was an option. I think his choices were to close the studio entirely and start fresh somewhere else, or to lay off 90% of the staff and keep on a small core team within the Take Two fold.

I feel like this probably is not right choice to make but I guess I have never run a studio before.

I hope everything works out for all involved.

I'm all for Ken Levine doing something new with a small team. But closing the studio down rather than handing off the reigns to someone else (or even selling the company to a publisher, I'd imagine there'd be someone interested) doesn't make any sense to me.

And there fuckin' goes SWAT 5.....and SkyoShock.

Rod Fergusson getting his own studio and then leaving less then 3 months was the fight sign

Reading these comments:

I guess if we're looking to raise up auteurs within the gaming industry, we have to villainize them as well.

Ken doesn't mention any hardship at the studio in terms of finances, and I think if Irrational wanted another go at a AAA game, the sheer pedigree of its critical successes would have warranted another project and funding. Of course, there are a lot of contractual employment that goes on as well as extensive outsourcing contacts used until the release of a game. But Mr. Levine perhaps wasn't too thrilled about the financial implications of future projects bound to revenue milestones and cut a deal with the publisher to essentially liquidate the studio. Given a lot of stories in public about how his style of game development has been wasteful and often authoritarian, if he has any regrets about the situation, if at all, he has no one but to blame himself.

I just realized.. I look at your comment, and see Kingoms of Amalur across the hall. That house sure is empty...

My favorite (now deleted) tweet so far:

Swat 4 was a really good game.

Bad news. Silver lining: GIANT BOMB HIRES SHAWN ELLIOTT?

I absolutely agree. To use an music analogy. This is a bit like when Roger Waters decided that he wanted to go off and do his own solo thing, and basically fired every other member of Pink Floyd after the recording of The Final Cut. Now, because of how ownership to bands works, the other members of Pink Floyd were able to sue Waters to get the name of the band back (though Roger Waters retained all the imagery and iconography from The Wall tour, as well as the Big Inflatable Pig from the Animals tour). Thus, we were able to get two more Pink Floyd albums that were decent (A Momentary Lapse of Reason) to really good (The Division Bell).

However, due to how the game industry works, I doubt a similar lawsuit could happen here. It'd be nice if the displaced employees could sue to get the company back, while Levine goes off to do his own smaller project elsewhere, but oh well. That said, if the laid off employees want to start their own company, I think the name "Sane Games" is available.

This bums me the fuck out.

game dev industry seems pretty ruthless and uncaring to the people putting in the hours. It seems like a good industry to avoid if you want stability and reasonable pay for your skills.

Heaven forbid a successful man do what he wants to do. Wait for any horror stories from the people that are to be laid off (if there are any)before you spit venom. And judging by the tweets posted, some people are too eager to jump in the doom pool.

aaand my new favorite tweet on the subject:

@hecterrific

I'm sure we're all in agreement that there's more to this story, but as it stands now this whole situation just reeks. More needs to be said about this, unless having a huge contingent of gamers turn on you seems like an ok thing to Ken and Take2. I truly see no good coming from any of this.

@r3dt1d3 said:

There's plenty of creative people around, I guess there also a bunch in the irrational. It's just that sometimes this super designers get a bit over their head of what they are, to name a few, Peter Molyneux, John Romero, Cliff Bleszinski, David Jaffe. Don't get me wrong their games were good, but they all get the: "it's all about me, my imagination, my story, my direction syndrome" - until they realize their latest product was in works for way too long and it turned out mediocre, and they don't want to deal with that any more, they are burned out, and want to do small things and not deal with AAA games that require millions over millions of dollars do make. And that basically happened to all of the above mentioned people.

Egomaniacs who think that the studio can't work without their input, when in fact they are just dragging it down. Some notice that sooner some later, but at the end they all leave and focus their life on something else, some are just decent enough not to drag 200 other people with them, weather or not it's directly their fault or not.

@tourgen said:

the IT business in general is, especially in the US. nobody expects pool tables, free food, tennis courts, beach volley, smoking lounges, pools, arcade machines, flexible working hours, etc. etc. and a $5000 check at the end of the month over here in Europe. People do their stuff for a normal wage in a normal office, but over in the US being a game developer is considered being special.

@hobozero: You and that guy are really showing your dumb. We have hardly any information on the topic, so yeah a lot of people aren't just starting a mob against Levine since there could be a number of reasons that Irrational is shutting down besides just Ken leaving and wanting to do something new. If it turns out everything was on him then sure I can agree he's an asshole, but from a lot of things surrounding this that are pretty suspicious. So maybe we should just wait until we have more information before we form a mob to try to force Levine out of the industry for something that might not even be totally his fault.

@gunslingerpanda said:

I didn't mean to quote it as fact. Just someone's opinion on NeoGAF. One that put some different thought into the whole situation.

I feel like right now everyone is quick to judge Ken Levine and put the entire thing on him. But I'm having a hard time believing Take-Two has no part in this. They are the Publisher after all.

Hopefully this means that Ken Levine's Fire Emblem "rip off" will finally get made.

I didn't realize you knew him personally or had inside information about this, that's awesome.

Because, I mean, why else would you make such claims and talk trash about someone you've never met? Nah, you know something the rest of us don't. Good for you bro.

"...most direct relationship with our fans possible." That is the puzzle.

It probably means a Kickstarter for a game that goes early access, releasing basically in alpha, while they get the premium-currency shop up and running. I am so cynical.

Well after BaS ep 2 the Bioshock name/ip is going to die a slow and painful death.

Exactly my first thought.

Levine is shutting down a studio and putting people out of work...because he wants to do something with a smaller studio? Where in the FUCK is that rational at all? (no pun intended)

Seriously, he could just step the fuck down and let Irrational still exist. This is fucking ludicrous, full of hubris, and just flat-out dumb.

Levine won't be seeing any of my money for a long while.

Mind you, this is my knee-jerk reaction. If it's more akin to that Neogaf thread going around where 2K wouldn't allow him to have it any other way, then 2K won't be getting my money for a long while.

If anyone remembers the very first bioshock had like 3-6 years of various on and off again working and reworking of ideas behind it, do people remember the 'slug in wheelchair' sketches?

Now imagine Ken wanted to have a similar long term working and reworking of ideas.

now imagine paying the salaries of 200 people for those years while producing very little final work.

Yeah, this does suck for the people affected, but I'm not sure I can put the moral responsibility on Ken to always produce another game with that team for the rest of his life.

Is it not his decision whether he wants to make another game or not?

Anyway, I suspect that's what's happening here. We'll only know with time though

You nailed it.

I don't have to know Michael Jordan to know that guy is a winner and champion. I don't have to know Tim Tebow to know he is very strong in his faith. I don't have to know Jeff Gerstmann to know he doesn't give a shit what he puts into his body. I don't have to know Bill Gates to know how selfless he is with his money. You judge people by their actions and words, you don't have to meet them. Because I imagine that you only criticize people you know personally. Except that is not true, you decided to do that with me and yet you don't know me.

Wow, did not expect this...

My heart goes out to those folks thrown into job-limbo. May that transition be as painless as possible for them.

Wait... So Ken Levine wants to do something else so he closed down the studio? Couldn't he just leave without closing irrational? Kinda confusing!

People dissing Levine for this development is way off base. He's sitting down and logically explaining the course of events that lead to this decision. I have no doubt that he wanted to leave to go do his own thing, and that he may have approached Take Two to start a changing of the guard so to speak. However, I'd also bet that Take Two is way more interested in "Ken Levine" than "Irrational Games". They probably gave him a blank check to explore his ideas to prevent him from leaving. At the same time, when you're going big into research and development, it doesn't make fiscal sense to employ over 100 people. It's a sucky situation, but if this is the case, you can't blame Ken for going where his creativity wills him, and you can't fault Take Two for this very good business decision. This said, I look forward to whatever he does next, and the quality his former team will infuse into everything else out there.

Folks are not putting on a thick enough business filter to the statement. The game didn't make enough money relative to the massive amount of time, money and sweat that went into it. Based on the studio location, size of the staff, benefits, and years in development I bet this AAA title didn't break even. 2K was willing to pay to keep key talent but not willing to continue funding that massively overgrown studio. Egomaniacs dont admit things like that and they certainly dont look to rip down the empire they created. He's trying to save some face and salvage something from the studio.

Man I really hope they work on another freedom force. Those games are some of my absolute favorite games. And it just so happens to be very story driven and highly repayable given the volume of characters.

You know, that could actually be a factor in this. Since it's over 200 employees, they probably don't want to provide health insurance for them all. Plus, the new studio is going to be below 50 people, so it won't be required anymore. Interesting.

What a load of fucking bullshit.

Whatever Ken

What a Selfish bastard :/

I'll withhold final judgment until more information comes out, but on the face of it, this seems like maybe the most needless and callous way that I've ever heard of in a long time for laying off almost 200 employees.

That totally sucks! What a huge bummer. Nobody else was really making big budget games with the same artistic freedom as Irrational. I expect I will enjoy Ken Levine's new game, but why did this have to happen to make it possible?

This seems... a bit absurd and sudden. Poor people working at Irrational.

Good luck making those "replayable" narrative driven games.

I just want a non-linear successor to system shock 2. One that still has at least a couple of mechanics. I loved the first bioshock but it's not the same.

I wanna explore god dammit.

A real surprise to us, but I'll be interested in whatever he does next. I'm excited to play the Bioshock Infinite DLC I've been holding out on.

Fucking whatever, SWAT 3 was better anyway and Tribes Vengeance sucked.

People instantly assigning all blame to Ken Levine are hiiiiilarious!