Irrational Games (Bioshock developer) shutting its doors

Animal House

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I didnt really like the last one but those guys are u very talented. I remember the development took longer than expected.
 

daze23

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Well Ken is taking 15 other people and basically starting a new studio inside of 2K so that he can make something other than System/BioShock.. Meanwhile Bioshock doesn't die because 2K still sold 4M+ copies and owns the rights to the franchise. The only baffling thing about this is why they had to let everyone else go (considering they're still going to use a larger studio to make Bioshock games anyway.

idk. I see a lot of people blaming Ken, but I get the feeling the decision really came from 'the man with the money' (2K?). I doubt Ken was sitting around like "muhahahaha, I can make more money if I fire everyone <birdman rubbing hands>"
 

hex

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Well Ken is taking 15 other people and basically starting a new studio inside of 2K so that he can make something other than System/BioShock.. Meanwhile Bioshock doesn't die because 2K still sold 4M+ copies and owns the rights to the franchise. The only baffling thing about this is why they had to let everyone else go (considering they're still going to use a larger studio to make Bioshock games anyway.

Because Ken only needs 15 people for whatever he's doing, and I'm assuming his team had contracts with Irrational, which no longer exists. Whether or not 2K rehires those people to work on the "Bioshock" games is another topic entirely. In the blog he did say the remaining team members could use the Irrational resources to put together portfolios and said Irrational would host a recruiting day for 3rd parties to come in and hire the rest of the staff.

Seems fair to me. :manny:

Fred.
 

Kodie

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idk. I see a lot of people blaming Ken, but I get the feeling the decision really came from 'the man with the money' (2K?). I doubt Ken was sitting around like "muhahahaha, I can make more money if I fire everyone <birdman rubbing hands>"
Yeah, I don't mean to put the onus on Ken here. It just seems like we're not hearing the whole story.
Because Ken only needs 15 people for whatever he's doing, and I'm assuming his team had contracts with Irrational, which no longer exists. Whether or not 2K rehires those people to work on the "Bioshock" games is another topic entirely. In the blog he did say the remaining team members could use the Irrational resources to put together portfolios and said Irrational would host a recruiting day for 3rd parties to come in and hire the rest of the staff.

Seems fair to me. :manny:

Fred.
Is Irrational not owned by 2K? If not, then never mind altogether. But if it is owned by 2K and 2K is going to continue to make Bioshock games and Bioshock games will remain AAA and require larger staffs, I don't see why 2K would shut down Irrational altogether as opposed to let Ken form his smaller team and keep the rest of Irrational intact.
 

hex

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Yeah, I don't mean to put the onus on Ken here. It just seems like we're not hearing the whole story.

Is Irrational not owned by 2K? If not, then never mind altogether. But if it is owned by 2K and 2K is going to continue to make Bioshock games and Bioshock games will remain AAA and require larger staffs, I don't see why 2K would shut down Irrational altogether as opposed to let Ken form his smaller team and keep the rest of Irrational intact.

Take-Two Interactive owns Irrational, who signed Ken Levine and his new team. I assume part of the deal was closing Irrational, since he started the company. 2K only publishes the games.

A lot of people (not you) are reading too much into this. There wasn't financial trouble, the guy just ran the company for 17 years and went through various employees due to the nature of game development. 2-3 teams separated from Irrational in the last decade. The guy just got tired of running a massive game studio and wanted to take it back to the old days. He did start Irrational with 3 people after all.

Fred.
 

daze23

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Yeah, I don't mean to put the onus on Ken here. It just seems like we're not hearing the whole story.

Is Irrational not owned by 2K? If not, then never mind altogether. But if it is owned by 2K and 2K is going to continue to make Bioshock games and Bioshock games will remain AAA and require larger staffs, I don't see why 2K would shut down Irrational altogether as opposed to let Ken form his smaller team and keep the rest of Irrational intact.

has it been said that 2K plans to continue making AAA Bioshock games?
 

daze23

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Greatness takes time.

like another 2K game

DukeNukemForever.jpg


:troll:
 

Kodie

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has it been said that 2K plans to continue making AAA Bioshock games?
I believe it has been said that 2K plans to continue making bioshock but I'll have to find the source. As for AAA, that's just my assumption. They've made three million sellers at this point - I'm fairly certain 2K will continue making them AAA, but with a different producer at the helm, they may actually be able to contain the budget.
Take-Two Interactive owns Irrational, who signed Ken Levine and his new team. I assume part of the deal was closing Irrational, since he started the company. 2K only publishes the games.

A lot of people (not you) are reading too much into this. There wasn't financial trouble, the guy just ran the company for 17 years and went through various employees due to the nature of game development. 2-3 teams separated from Irrational in the last decade. The guy just got tired of running a massive game studio and wanted to take it back to the old days. He did start Irrational with 3 people after all.

Fred.
Plenty of people leave the studios they founded and still it runs without them (most recently, John Carmack and id). I think it's genuinely odd that a relatively successful studio completely shuts down.
 

daze23

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I believe it has been said that 2K plans to continue making bioshock but I'll have to find the source. As for AAA, that's just my assumption. They've made three million sellers at this point - I'm fairly certain 2K will continue making them AAA, but with a different producer at the helm, they may actually be able to contain the budget.

idk, BI was pretty well received, but at the same time it seemed many though the series had run it's course. imo that kind of becomes apparent when a the series goes the prequel route (not to mention the sequel wasn't even made by Irrational). where do you go from there? to be clear, I don't doubt that they might try to continue to juice the ip, I'm just not sure what it would be

there's also the question of what, if anything, Irrational was working on, or planning on working on (aside from the Infinite DLC)
 

hex

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I believe it has been said that 2K plans to continue making bioshock but I'll have to find the source. As for AAA, that's just my assumption. They've made three million sellers at this point - I'm fairly certain 2K will continue making them AAA, but with a different producer at the helm, they may actually be able to contain the budget.

Plenty of people leave the studios they founded and still it runs without them (most recently, John Carmack and id). I think it's genuinely odd that a relatively successful studio completely shuts down.

Well yeah but John Carmack didn't leave with 15 employees from Id. It's possible Levine took so many key people from Irrational that keeping the studio going would just be the name alone.

Fred.
 

Batman

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I see so in the end all the black people died after being treated like filth the entire game. Sounds racist to me. There was no happy ending for the oppressed. They crashed and burned and it was the end of their chapter and thats the game you chose to mount an angelic defense after? :ohhh: Put it together i rock with angels u rock with demons, friend. :sitdown:

You're fukking retarded, end of story.
 
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