Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting down

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Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting down

Postby Henry Spencer » Wed Feb 19, 2014 8:31 pm

A Message From Ken Levine

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 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 [email protected]


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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby Raithos » Wed Feb 19, 2014 8:35 pm

What an irrational decision to make, laying off all those people, instead of doing your own thing else where. No need to put that many folks out of a job because you decided to do smaller projects.

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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby Crimson Ryan » Thu Feb 20, 2014 4:30 am

Raithos wrote: What an irrational decision to make, laying off all those people, instead of doing your own thing else where. No need to put that many folks out of a job because you decided to do smaller projects.

Six years to make a game with a lack of sales to make up for it. Suits just look at cold numbers unfortunately..
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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby Riku Rose » Thu Feb 20, 2014 6:22 am

Raithos wrote: What an irrational decision to make, laying off all those people, instead of doing your own thing else where. No need to put that many folks out of a job because you decided to do smaller projects.


That was my first thought but I wonder if Take Two would even keep anyone if Ken Levine decided to leave since he is the main appeal of the studio. Have to hand it to how they're helping everyone find new jobs though, most people would just fire them and think no more of it.

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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby Who Really Cares? » Thu Feb 20, 2014 9:48 am

Crimson Ryan wrote:
Raithos wrote: What an irrational decision to make, laying off all those people, instead of doing your own thing else where. No need to put that many folks out of a job because you decided to do smaller projects.

Six years to make a game with a lack of sales to make up for it. Suits just look at cold numbers unfortunately..


Over 4m not including digital sales. Did Take Two ever say how many they hoped to sell?
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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby OL » Thu Feb 20, 2014 12:57 pm

Yeah, I thought Bioshock Infinite was successful as hell?
Anyway, he makes it clear that the decision isn't one made out of sales; he just wants to do smaller games and have more freedom to do so. It's nice that they're trying to support those they're laying off to some extent, but it's kind of shitty either way; if the studio is big enough, why not just work on your little 15-man game and have everyone else working on something else? Seems like a selfish little move for a studio owner to make, in my eyes.
Of course, putting aside the fact that I loved System Shock, Bioshock, and Infinite, most behind-the-scenes stuff I've seen has lead me to believe that Ken Levine is kind of a dick anyway, one of those "way too serious about his 'art'" types, so it shouldn't be a surprise.

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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby MiTT3NZ » Thu Feb 20, 2014 1:03 pm

What a...

shock!

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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby Raithos » Thu Feb 20, 2014 1:05 pm

Yeah I was under the impression it sold great. Most people I know bought it. I just think it could of been handled differently is all. It seems he talked to 2K, and went his own route instead of thinking about his employees. I'm sure 2K would of had no problem with letting him start a smaller studio, and letting someone else take the reins of Irrational. Hopefully the displaced workers find jobs, or band together to make Rational studios. I really did enjoy their work. Too many good developers have been closing their doors as of late.

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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby Segata Sanshiro Jr. » Thu Feb 20, 2014 2:38 pm

OL wrote:Most behind-the-scenes stuff I've seen has lead me to believe that Ken Levine is kind of a dick anyway, one of those "way too serious about his 'art'" types, so it shouldn't be a surprise.


and kinda racist, and intolerant of religion, and just overall he's been going down a rabbit hole for the last like 8 years. Talking to him now and when I first worked for him he's gotten worse in an introverted way.
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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby Crimson Ryan » Thu Feb 20, 2014 2:57 pm

Who Really Cares? wrote:
Crimson Ryan wrote:
Raithos wrote: What an irrational decision to make, laying off all those people, instead of doing your own thing else where. No need to put that many folks out of a job because you decided to do smaller projects.

Six years to make a game with a lack of sales to make up for it. Suits just look at cold numbers unfortunately..


Over 4m not including digital sales. Did Take Two ever say how many they hoped to sell?

I'm not sure. From what else I've read about it they just wanted as many/more of the first two games?

Raithos wrote: What an irrational decision to make

I saw that..

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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby Who Really Cares? » Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:29 pm

First did 4M as well. Not sure about 2 but pretty sure it wasn't as successful.

No real reason to close the studio down IMO. Maybe he got jelly at Infinite not being nominated for GOTY?
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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby beedle » Thu Feb 20, 2014 4:01 pm

they probably spent too long faffing around on bioshock infinite, with auteur levine constantly changing his mind. Pretty sure he's lying when he says this is a completely artistic decision.
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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby Henry Spencer » Thu Feb 20, 2014 5:51 pm

^He is.

I mean, I hated it. But I might not be a very good journalist. The news that Irrational would effectively close, laying off its staff, leaving Levine to start a new endeavor with just 15 former Irrational members and a flat hierarchy, came as a surprise to me -- and that's even though someone told me it could happen, a year ago.

I didn't report it. I don't report a lot of things people tell me in confidence about what goes on at their jobs. Digging around in dirty laundry and in open wounds is complicated. The value of the story to those who will read it has to be worth the net risk. There's the risk you're dead wrong: you can't just write an article based on what you heard from one friend or one colleague and present it as fact, just because you believe it. People have to be willing to corroborate, and they have to be willing to do it on the record. Otherwise it's not reporting, it's rumor-mongering. It's irresponsible.

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.

What good does it do anyone, the story about the conditional but likely imminent closure? Who does it help and serve? What good does it do to risk my friends' jobs and their confidence to patch together the plausible but potentially biased story about all the extra unfinished or un-implemented content from the wildly over-budget and over-scope game? The story about the high stress, the high turnover, the difficult-to-work-with creative lead?


http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2111 ... aundry.php

tl;dr version - They (2K) were were threatening to close the studio over a year ago if BioShock Infinite didn't sell "exponentially more than its predecessor"...

Plus, the original art director of BioShock Infinite left a couple of years ago, along with some of the other design team. No doubt Levine wasn't letting the designers and artists actually do their job. The guy is notoriously hard to work with, it seems.

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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby beedle » Thu Feb 20, 2014 6:52 pm

what an absolutely brilliant article. I agree with more or less all of that. Need to keep up with this Leigh Alexander.
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Re: Irrational Games (BioShock, System Shock) is shutting do

Postby Segata Sanshiro Jr. » Thu Feb 20, 2014 9:00 pm

You're all taking this better then I thought. I was kinda expecting everyone to crap on 2K and Take Two (whoa re partially to blame) not crapping on Ken (who is for the most part the bad guy here)
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