Irrational Games emerged back in 1997, founded by Ken Levine, Jon Chey, and Rob Fermier. The studio co-developed System Shock 2 to critical acclaim and spoiled pants, and since then has produced a variety of titles, from Freedom Force to SWAT to Bioshock. Their latest release came last year with Bioshock Infinite.
So, what's next for the acclaimed studio?
Irrational GamesSeventeen 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.
...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.
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Talk about a bio-complete surprise.
But... yeah, that's quite a bombshell. Irrational Games is downsizing and handing over the reins of the Bioshock franchise to 2K, even after Bioshock Infinite's sales success. One can only speculate if this has anything to do with the game's drawn out development cycle, which saw it delayed, dropping multiplayer features, scrapping/rearranging entire story elements, and (supposedly) going massively over budget. After an experience like that, it'd be easy to imagine why he might need a break and/or Take Two might want them cut down.
If only they just called it "Skyoshock." All of these problems could have been avoided.
After the release of the last bit of Infinite DLC, it seems that the future of the Bioshock franchise will be in the hands of other studios. Then again, seeing how Bioshock 2 worked out (and what Infinite ended up as), maybe that's not such a bad thing after all.