Irrational Games to be dissolved
Ken Levine starting up "small entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two" as all but 15 members of the studio will be laid off
It's a sad day for the hard-working employees at Irrational Games today, as studio boss Ken Levine just announced on the developer's official site that Irrational is "winding down," and that all but 15 members of the studio will be downsized. Levine, himself, is looking to start something new within publisher Take-Two.
Here's his full, unedited letter to the world:
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
If you have jobs news to share or a new hire you want to shout about, please contact us on newhires@gamesindustry.biz
I was looking forward to the new thing from irrational, this is very sad.
Last update - Missed that last line before that they are handing the reins over to 2k for bioshock, so at least we have hope we get more games in that world. I'm surprised that they don't just build a new studio from irrational's crew then for just that purpose.
Edited 3 times. Last edit by Kevin Patterson on 18th February 2014 7:06pm
No, that's exactly what it sounds like to me too, and frankly I'm shocked there are so many gushy fanboy comments here. As much as I enjoyed Bioshock, this is kind of a dick move for Levine to pull on his team, and puts him only slightly higher than Curt Schilling in my eyes.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by James Wells on 18th February 2014 8:06pm
Good luck to all of those affected. From the amazing games the studio has put out I'm sure most of the devs will easily pick up new work.
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Thomas Dolby on 18th February 2014 8:21pm
http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/9/4816828/ken-levines-next-big-thing-isnt-so-much-a-game-as-it-is-a-reinvention
That said, hopefully the staff will receive suitable compensation and I feel confident about everyone's ability to go forward and do great things in the future.
I don't see the need to lay off most of his staff and stay with IG.
"starting a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two" sounds like actually starting a new company under the wings of T2, which to me sounds like a more logical thing to do.
Thank you for the wonderful games, I hope many more will come.
Good luck to the staff.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Michael Vandendriessche on 18th February 2014 10:59pm
Edited 1 times. Last edit by James Barnard on 18th February 2014 11:33pm
Second of all - Looking Glass Games -> Irrational Games -> Core Team being financed to work on auteur projects
Am I the only person both seeing a trend and becoming somewhat excited as to what that trend may entail?
And what about those who didn't directly work on the games? The secretaries, receptionists, cleaners etc? I'm sure they can excitedly look forward to being head hunted too because they worked at irrational.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Justin Biddle on 18th February 2014 11:32pm
Either way, I feel bad for all of the Irrational staff affected by this, especially those who - as Justin points out - were perhaps not in such key positions that they could just walk into another job on the strength of their tenure with Irrational alone. I'm sure none of them could've imagined that after producing one of the best reviewed and best selling games of the last generation, they'd be left out in the cold so soon.
Playing through Bioshock Infinite that just landed on Playstation Plus is going to feel a little bittersweet now.
I wish them to rebuild and keep that creativity running.
I simply don't think T2 wanted to bankroll another 3-5 years development cycle for IG without Ken at the helm. By dissolving the studio they can handpick the talent and get rid of the rest. The games industry needs to mature, this is no way to treat people.
At least they're giving a hand to (all?) the recently unemployed. But what about the 'lower caste' like the "cleaning lady"?