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 chris.bigelow@2k.com
the console centric AAA model reaches out with its claws and steals another victim in its spastic death throes.
the console centric AAA model reaches out with its claws and steals another victim in its spastic death throes.
It really does sound like Infinite pushed him over the edge. Starting over with such a tiny team (in this day and age) is certainly going to be incredibly tough for them. I doubt we'll be hearing anything from them for a long, long time.
They have mountains of assets. Why not just make telltale adventure games set in rapture/cloudcity or something?
wasn't one of the hype-points about the infinite dlc that the player doesn't get a gun for a long while? Isn't the sort of person who likes the bioshock franchise mostly in it for the narrative (and world building lore)? Isn't the most resource consuming part of development asset creation?
I feel like it would be very obviously a good move for them to move in a more tell tale like direction building on what they already have, but I thought that after bioshock came out of it's seven year dev cycle as well so wtf do I know...
I think he realizes Infinite was a flawed game from the premise. Either do a story game or do a combat game. But trying to jury rig them together for no good reason doesn't really work.
I think he realizes Infinite was a flawed game from the premise. Either do a story game or do a combat game. But trying to jury rig them together for no good reason doesn't really work.
Or he realizes the current model of skyrocketing costs and meager margins is unsustainable with little to no room of growth with a team and projects of that size. Gotta hit the reset button fast.
2k always owned Bioshock.
and I'm kinda surprised that Levine is staying with his old publisher, after, you know, being forced to lay off damn near his whole studio. You think if anybody could get outside funding for a small indie team it'd be that guy.
Baghdad bob
(http://i.imgur.com/PIj9wPc.jpg)Ah, Twitter. JP LeBreton has always sounded like a nice guy when he was on IdleThumbs. Guess we know why he left Irrational for 2K Marin and then went to Double Fine.
:jawalrus
my passion has turned to making a different kind of game than we’ve done before
the console centric AAA model reaches out with its claws and steals another victim in its spastic death throes.
was finkton the place where you shot people?
Since the release of BioShock, Levine has come off to me in various instances like he views himself as this visionary philosopher enlightening us common people through his art.
I like his games a good amount, but it does feel and read to an extent like he's been getting trapped going down that rabbit hole and it's hurting his gameplay designing skill to whatever extent that existed prior. Like in that exchange Brobzoid posted, his goal isn't necessarily to create a game anymore that's just the medium he's in and knows.Kojima complex
No, Rumbler and Benji are. Like it's some downgrade going from an on rails fps to a cover shooter.
The next Bioshock will be a cover-shooter with QTEs.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JPMiqDqkWn8
I thought Bioshock and Infinite were really pretty, in a big way. The artists (and their directors) involved really knew how to create place. I have no idea how much of that Levine was directly or indirectly responsible for, but that's the first and lasting impression.The scale and beauty of the environment work in those games (especially Infinite) kinda reminded me of the first time I saw the huge, stylized vistas of a Final Fantasy game on PS1. Sadly it wasn't enough for me to tolerate the boring, shallow gunplay.
The games themselves were just cumbersome shooters. I guess the production values were just plain high, enough so to get me through the games.
The next Bioshock will be a cover-shooter with QTEs.
so when it's going to be ubisoft turn so we can finaly get rid of ass-ass-in creed?
we already had their version of this when patrice desilets left
oh wait.... do you think bioshock is going somewhere? silly magoose.
A libertarian miffed by Bioshock? You don't say!A real free market utopia wouldn't be that linear!
A libertarian miffed by Bioshock? You don't say!A real free market utopia wouldn't be that linear!
I'm probably thinking too much about BioShock, but I think the reason the first played better as a game for me than Infinite (never played 2) was that you were basically just trying to survive in a setting that had ALREADY had a fall from grace. In Infinite, you're the engine of that fall, whether it's deserved or not.
I haven't played the first one since 2008 I wanna say, so I might be wrong, but I remember enjoying the gameplay better than Infinite's as well, even though the skyhook shit was really fun.
Bioshock Infinite was so utterly abysmal, totally devoid of any effort whatsoever.
More games need to understand the concept of a final boss.
More western games need to understand the concept of a final boss.
Deus Ex had bad bosses all around. Which sucks cause the rest of the game is awesome.
I'm still wondering how after 7 years of development Levine managed to produce a game that felt exactly the game he just made but worse. He talks so much about iteration but what exactly was he iterating?
I'm still wondering how after 7 years of development Levine managed to produce a game that felt exactly the game he just made but worse. He talks so much about iteration but what exactly was he iterating?
Racism
This was originally written by a black man during the 30's.Oh, the irony.
Well that's thatAs bad as I feel for that group of people, I assume most of them will have less trouble being picked up by other studios than Ken Himself would. That's a staggering amount of talent and, while I assume this is no picnic for any of them, they are likely all on to greener pastures.
Feel bad for the retardedly talented people looking for work now. This sucks regardless of whether or not Ken was a nut, he kept people employed
I feel bad for the people who got laid off. Infinite was such a piece of shit.
Well that's thatAs bad as I feel for that group of people, I assume most of them will have less trouble being picked up by other studios than Ken Himself would. That's a staggering amount of talent and, while I assume this is no picnic for any of them, they are likely all on to greener pastures.
Feel bad for the retardedly talented people looking for work now. This sucks regardless of whether or not Ken was a nut, he kept people employed
Ken, though, and that "gee, it's been great, and i'm still employed, but everyone else has got to go" memo, it is hard to picture a more self-serving PR misstep than that. I wonder if anyone will spit on him at GDC.I feel bad for the people who got laid off. Infinite was such a piece of shit.
Wait, I find NOTHING contentious in a Third post? SOUND THE ALARM, THE END TIME IS NIGH.