Irrational Games "Winding Down"

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Originally Posted by Ken Levine

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

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Nooooooooooooooo

Here comes some junk

Would that be different than before?

So this is the end. While I didn't enjoy Infinite as much as most people, it is still better than most of the games out there. Sad day.

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Originally Posted by MechDeus

Would that be different than before?

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Yes...it's about the final proof that narrative games can't have big budgets...although I will admit that a) you can do things on small budgets and b) BSI development was messy

It's only proof that one guy with a lot of influence wants to do something different. 2K isn't pulling the plug on a series or style that has brought them "over a half billion dollars."

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Originally Posted by Joust Williams

Yes...it's about the final proof that narrative games can't have big budgets...although I will admit that a) you can do things on small budgets and b) BSI development was messy

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That's quite the leap in logic.

Yeah, but couldn't he just leave the team and let them do what they want? The whole "There’s no great way to lay people off" makes it seem a little different than what you're saying.

Keeping the name makes it easier for him to promote later, and that way even if he fired everyone and hired some interns as replacement they can say crap like, "From the studio that made Bioshock!"

I guess it depends on where 2K is sending the IP. Logically, a bunch of those people should catch on there. I view this as 2K not being as big of douchebags as EA and letting the studio's founders actually have some say in the future of what they created instead of running them all out of town.

Yeah I'm going with what I said. Since that's how everything is turning out.

A narrative-based game wins GotY basically everywhere, and Joust wants a 21-gun salute.

If they could sell the award, then you have a point

Mass Effect, Dishonored, Bioshock, Fallout 3, and other big-budget narrative games win GOTYs and make shitloads of money on a consistent basis, GUESS THIS IS THE END

BioShock generated over $250M in revenue. That's the point. I don't think Sony did too poorly with The Last of Us either.

Aside from the fact that this isn't a long list, ME is moving to MP, Dishonored didn't set anything on fire, RIP Bioshock duh, Bethesda is making an MMO...

We will have this discussion again in a couple years.

Todd Howard's team isn't making ESO; they're working on Fallout 4. What are you even talking about? No one is more concerned about the survival of single player games than me, but there is no reason to worry right now.

edit: And what was that about Dishonored?

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Originally Posted by Joust Williams

Aside from the fact that this isn't a long list, ME is moving to MP, Dishonored didn't set anything on fire, RIP Bioshock duh, Bethesda is making an MMO...

We will have this discussion again in a couple years.

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The only thing we know about ME4 is that it might have weapon holstering, Dishonored sold way better than expected, Bioshock made a crazy of money, and Bethesda is making a narrative MMO.

You sure are insistent on ramming your head into that sand as hard as you can.

Sure there is...there are fewer than there used to be. This gen will have fewer than the last...note that I am taking about big budget stuff. I think in the indie source there will be a lot.

Why would a publisher take more than a chance a generation on a big budget SP-centric game that people will just wait for on PS+? Why is this team getting the axe?

After Infinite, I'm fine with Levine making efforts to reel in & refocus his team. I look forward to whatever he does especially now that it might not be weighed down by the "AAA SHOOTER" label.

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Originally Posted by Joust Williams

Sure there is...there are fewer than there used to be. This gen will have fewer than the last...note that I am taking about big budget stuff. I think in the indie source there will be a lot.

Why would a publisher take more than a chance a generation on a big budget SP-centric game that people will just wait for on PS+? Why is this team getting the axe?

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I'm sure Sony will shutter Naughty Dog any day now, because they can't take any more chances on huge sales and awards raining down. The damn letter Levine wrote tells you why this team is getting the axe, and it's not sales or seemingly even the publisher's decision.

Yes, TT is releasing a team that produced a big budget narrative game and replacing them with a small team. That's what I said. Then they will make some Bioshock game in China that will have a strong MP focus. Cool.

I don't know if they were a TT studio or fully independent though

Having a multiplayer component doesn't mean anything. Later entries of Assassin's Creed, Portal, Borderlands, Halo, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, and others all had multiplayer alongside a strong narrative singleplayer. If anything, the singleplayer in a number of those series were often substantially better in the entries that added multiplayer.

Yoshi is right, Ken Levine probably wants to make some pixel graphics crap and TT is gonna let him. It's not indicative of anything other than the fact that Levine is bored.

Icarus flew too close to the sun.

That's a pretty classy letter as these things go.

Especially with the departing staff stuff.

It's a strange move to lay off 95% of a studio that successful, rather than simply let Ken and his choice of staff spin off to a new thing.

BioShock 2 was done without IG's help, and turned out fine. So there's still hope. I'm enjoying it- simply, it's more of what makes the first one so good even if it's not a big graphic leap. Dual-wielding a plasmid and a weapon kicks ass- like showering a group of Incinerating splicers with MG fire or rivets so they go down quicker. Playing as a Big Daddy is nice for a change. I bought the PC version recently after hearing that 2K ditched SecuROM/GFWL and went with Steam.

A sequel set in a later time (probably 1970s- early 80s as Rapture starts to recover from the events of 1&2, or maybe a space colony in 2030) sounds great, but hopefully we don't end up with some halfass continuation by a completely different group. Hopefully 2K can hire some former IG staff to work with the Bay Area studio (where some 2K Marin staffers supposedly are headed) on a UE4-powered BioShock title.

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Originally Posted by FirstBlood

After Infinite, I'm fine with Levine making efforts to reel in & refocus his team. I look forward to whatever he does especially now that it might not be weighed down by the "AAA SHOOTER" label.

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This is what I'm thinking, too.

I would more excited if he said "emergent design driven" instead of "narrative-driven" but we'll see.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

I'm sure Sony will shutter Naughty Dog any day now, because they can't take any more chances on huge sales and awards raining down. The damn letter Levine wrote tells you why this team is getting the axe, and it's not sales or seemingly even the publisher's decision.

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You're crazy if you think it's not because of sales or the publishers decision.

The writing was on the wall, if you follow Levine on Twitter. It was absolutely what he wanted.

I'm not doubting that he's probably happy right now and he missed not having the deadlines and crunch time of a big AAA title, but he would never have imploded a successful studio over that wish and got rid of 200 jobs 'just because'.

Infinite cost way too much money for the 4 million in sales or whatever it did. Take Two can let Rockstar do that shit because they deliver. Irrational didn't and Take Two aren't willing to stomach any more AAA games that barely break even.

I'll try to remember to quote that post when the next BioShock gets announced.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

I'll try to remember to quote that post when the next BioShock gets announced.

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Go ahead. I didn't call the series dead anywhere.

The next game will certainly be a lot cheaper to make than the one that took six years in expensive ass Massachusetts.

Oh look

Yea, there will be another Bioshock, it will probably cost way less to make than Infinite though.

Irrational could have, I guess, just gotten a new boss. There are lots of talented people there. It's maybe telling they didn't go that way.

Nowadays if you are spending AAA money you need to sell AAA units, which is like, 10-15 million at least. Battlefield, COD, GTA, etc., they can do it. Tomb Raider, Infinite, etc., selling 5 million is not good enough. You can spend way less and hit your ROI with a bunch of stuff like XCOM.

Dave raises a good point. I wouldn't want Ken Levine running a business for me, which is basically what he was doing. I wouldn't want Miyamoto or many, if any, of these other creative types doing it either.

They brought in Rod Ferguson to get BI finished. If not for him, Infinite would have probably been another Duke Nukem Forever. 2k's only mistake was not bringing in a closer sooner.

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Originally Posted by Joust Williams

Yes...it's about the final proof that narrative games can't have big budgets...

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Why is that inherently bad though?

I've grown well tired of big budget games that try to cram everyone into the same experience Because Story. As if the player doesn't matter and all that really matters and should be praised/important about videogames is a creator's vision and that creator's ability to show you how clever/funny/smart/insightful/better they are than you. I'd rather that if you want to communicate a story, theme, or ideas, that you at least try to do so in a way that values the player as important too. Or makes the gameplay mechanics a part of narrative/themes itself. Something like Papers, Please or Dark Souls. Bioshock Infinite does none of that - it carries itself like its better than you, that you're just fucking lucky that it decided to give you a shitty shooter while it showers you with it's great wisdom and story.

All the same, this is absolute garbage for all the people at Irrational being laid off. I may not care for Levine's grand visions, but that doesn't mean some talented ass people weren't there doing great work.

Who peed in the Heerios?

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Originally Posted by Hero

Why is that inherently bad though?

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Because Max Payne 3 and Bioshock Infinite ruled. Give me huge ass games. I don't want every everything being pixel and chiptunes and hipster

2K Marin officially has the BioShock IP. Unrelated awesome news is that Red Dead is now a "permanent franchise."

Can't wait for the persistent online mode with massively hyped group train robbery missions that never materialize.

Or Red Shock Redemption. Take Bioshock into the old west and still tie it into Rapture.

I don't quite know what to make of the 2K Marin thing.

They're not a bad studio but they lost a bunch of talent and I have a feeling 2K's going to milk the Bioshock IP to death with a steady decline in quality. Granted, I understand the business side of things since the Levine Bioshocks, while great, were money sinks (specifically Infinite) so they have to leverage the brand but if they're not at least good to great games they might kill it.