Irrational Games is Shutting it's Doors.

[Andrew LB]

After 17 years in the business, Ken Levine is shutting down Irrational Games, creators of the Bioshock series, some of the most brilliant video games ever made.

here is what Ken Levine had to say....

A Message From Ken Levine

by IG.Ken on February 18 2014
4 comments

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

-Ken Levine
@iglevine

*If you?re a 3rd party interested in interviewing some of the best game developers in the world, please contact chris.bigelow@2k.com

http://irrationalgames.com/new-featu...#comment-54206

Truly a sad day for video gaming.

[kromosto]

vaow that is sad

[ajaidev]

This is terrible no more Bioshock very sad I just loved the latest one not to mention the original one.

A dark day for gamers

[Darakian]

They're making a new studio, how is this a bad thing?

[paulbagz]

They're making a new studio, how is this a bad thing?

Because they just canned most of their staff to do it?

-PB

[Flanman]

Because they just canned most of their staff to do it?

-PB

also take into consideration everything they are doing to help those that are being laid off, more than what most companies would do. it sucks that they are closing but if it means they are able o start fresh with new ideas and focus more on what's important to them and the gamers and not just the big publishers, than good for them.

[SubZero.it]

This is really sad.
I enjoyed all Bioshocks...but hey, didn't they make good profits with these games? Sounds impossible to me (don't kill me, didn't have time to read the entire article)

[Linchpin]

They never said there would be no more Bioshock games, 2k retains the right to the franchise and there's a decent chance there will be more Bioshock games with a different dev like they already did with Bioshock 2 which Irrational had nothing to do with.

[EternityZX9]

If you actually search the net and do some digging around...the jist of the real story is the Take Two (parent company) didn't want to financially support a staff of hundreds through a long gestating development cycle and entire game scraps (Bio Shock Infinite took 6 years to make with rumor scraps along the development cycle) for a triple A game title such as BioShock.

The profit margins were just not sustainable long term to the likings of Take Two.

Thus the retaining of the creative genius behind the series and just a small team of 15 brought along with him to create "highly replayable" and "digitially delivered content"...

Read: "Quickly released money generator games"

Money. It makes the world turn.

[crash5s]

This is really sad.
I enjoyed all Bioshocks...but hey, didn't they make good profits with these games? Sounds impossible to me (don't kill me, didn't have time to read the entire article)

There is a huge industry wide problem right. Which is that for games with AAA graphics and sound, just like Hollywood unless it makes an insane amount of money.... you just wasted all your development cash and man hours that could have been spent on another project. So if a game has AAA graphics, you have to cater to the lowest common denominator and it has to sell like Call of Duty. If it doesn't, you deserve to be fired and have your career ruined. You can really only innovate, take risks, take your time, and appeal to something other than the lowest common denominator if you're game doesn't require the $$$$$$$$$$ of AAA graphics, sound, and other wizardry... hence why all the innovation and cool stuff is happening on the indie side of things, or on small PSN/xbox live titles. It's also why AAA stuff is quickly reducing to Madden, COD, and other stuff where it's 100% certain to sell enough to have been worth the investment and it's made sure that if it looks AAA it's dumbed down to hell and back so it can push the maximum amount of copies.

So none of this is shocking... there is simply no room for interesting AAA games anymore, the amount of money involved can't allow it.

On the other hand a few individuals are well off enough and have enough credibility to strike out on their own. They aren't creating AAA games when it comes to visuals or sound (lack the budget), but it does let them make the type of game when it comes to actual gameplay that they want. Less visual spectacle, more vision and gameplay.

This sort of splintering has been happening all over the games industry. There's one market for AAA visuals and spectacle, but gameplay. And another group that creates really interesting games but doesn't have the AAA looks.

Nothing is abnormal about this. The movie and music industries also went down the same road as costs (also driven by technical wizardry involved in making them) soared through the roof. Hence why all AAA blockbusters are brain dead movies, and most interesting movies don't look that great.

[STEvil]

There is a huge industry wide problem right. Which is that for games with AAA graphics and sound, just like Hollywood unless it makes an insane amount of money.... you just wasted all your development cash and man hours that could have been spent on another project. So if a game has AAA graphics, you have to cater to the lowest common denominator and it has to sell like Call of Duty. If it doesn't, you deserve to be fired and have your career ruined. You can really only innovate, take risks, take your time, and appeal to something other than the lowest common denominator if you're game doesn't require the $$$$$$$$$$ of AAA graphics, sound, and other wizardry... hence why all the innovation and cool stuff is happening on the indie side of things, or on small PSN/xbox live titles. It's also why AAA stuff is quickly reducing to Madden, COD, and other stuff where it's 100% certain to sell enough to have been worth the investment and it's made sure that if it looks AAA it's dumbed down to hell and back so it can push the maximum amount of copies.

So none of this is shocking... there is simply no room for interesting AAA games anymore, the amount of money involved can't allow it.

On the other hand a few individuals are well off enough and have enough credibility to strike out on their own. They aren't creating AAA games when it comes to visuals or sound (lack the budget), but it does let them make the type of game when it comes to actual gameplay that they want. Less visual spectacle, more vision and gameplay.

This sort of splintering has been happening all over the games industry. There's one market for AAA visuals and spectacle, but gameplay. And another group that creates really interesting games but doesn't have the AAA looks.

Nothing is abnormal about this. The movie and music industries also went down the same road as costs (also driven by technical wizardry involved in making them) soared through the roof. Hence why all AAA blockbusters are brain dead movies, and most interesting movies don't look that great.

The horrible accounting teams dont help at all either

[El Mano]

And why didn't he sell the studio rather than laying off the staff?
I don't understand. It sounds childish and capricious.
There must be more then he's saying.

[Jamesrt2004]

And why didn't he sell the studio rather than laying off the staff?
I don't understand. It sounds childish and capricious.
There must be more then he's saying.

if you google totalbiscuits view on it, if true.. seems very reasonable

Publisher wants to keep the 'brand' for the studio for the studio's future rather than just lose it altogether, keep the good staff in the good, but now smaller studio making games that they want.

All the other staff either move to other companies with great help from publisher/studio, and/or move to said publishers other studio they are re-branding/doing

[himaro]

Like all of us here, I think this is a sad day for games consumers.
However, what about the prospect of the guy just wanting a change of scene?
17 years is a long time working on the same franchise \ ecosystem.
I know that it's not as simple as that and there will be a hell of a lot of factors involved, most of which are behind the scenes.

And as far as closures \ wind downs go, i think this ranks up there on how to do it.
They're on a high after the last Bioshock that received a lot of awards and good reviews \ sales.
They're helping people who are laid off get another job and are being offered a place in another studio.