If you told me you saw this coming, I’d be hard pressed to believe you.
Today, Ken Levine announced in a statement on the Irrational Games’ website that the studio in its current form will be closing down. It’s not being shuttered by Take-Two, nor has it underperformed—it’s simply time for something new. Levine explains further in his post.
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.
It sounds interesting, and I’m certainly not against Levine branching out or refocusing his creative efforts. But why does it have to spell the end of Irrational? Can the studio simply not go on without him? If the 15 members departing are the creative heart and soul of the company, then perhaps it wouldn’t be the Irrational we know and love even if it did stay open.
Fortunately, Levine made it very clear that Irrational’s employees will be taken care of to the best of Take-Two’s ability. The publisher will host a recruiting day, and will openly discuss other opportunities under the company umbrella should they become available. It’s not ideal, but it seems as though most of these folks will find a new home easily enough.
The real question is, what exactly is Mr. Levine up to? He’s being pretty vague about his next project thus far, but the fact that it’s going to be narrative-heavy and require a small force of creative minds certainly sounds promising.
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.
Outside of the unfortunate layoffs associated with Irrational’s (un?)timely end, it’s difficult to deny the mysterious excitement the new project brings. The BioShock series is excellent, but personally I felt Infinite reached for narrative scope it couldn’t quite execute. If this new endeavor can improve on the best of what BioShock storytelling had to offer, then we may be in for something truly fantastic. Lighthouses, man.
