It could be that there is some contractual/financial reason why leaving Irrational as-is isn’t possible. Ken never came across as a vindictive “I’m taking my ball and going home” kind of guy, and he’s been around for decades so he’s not some inexperienced neophyte that lets his emotions come before his business.
Couldn’t 2k just start a new studio with the same team if they really wanted to keep them? My guess is that 2k didn’t think Irrational was profitable enough and asked Levine to take the blame for the shut down.
Exactly. This is very distasteful. I get the desire to work on a smaller team on a smaller project, but just leave/sell the company and start a new one. Don’t lay off everyone in the process.
This is assuming that everything in the letter can be taken at face value and that there aren’t considerations outside Levine’s control.
Obviously this sucks for the people being laid off. But ultimately it is the business owner’s decision as to what happens to his business if they want out.
For all we know, this may actually be the best outcome for the employees. If, for example, Irrational does not themselves own any IP, then their value may be limited. That value is made up of the brand name, the employees, their established relationships and work behaviours and whatever toolsets might come along for the ride. But if a potential buyer has nothing for an acquired team to actually do, then those FTE very quickly become a liability. It could be far worse for the employees if they were snapped up by a larger studio then laid off two months later with no care for what becomes of them because only the brand was valued.
At least it sounds like Ken has in mind the best intentions for staff he has to let go and can try to exercise some control over their ultimate fate, something he could not do if the studio was sold.
So sure, it sucks, but we need more information before we can give Ken the evil eye for choosing to wind up instead of sell.
I’m pretty sure 2K bought Irrational way back. Then they changed their names to 2k Boston and 2k Australia remember? And then 2k Boston was changed back to Irrational since it was a stronger brand already known to gamers.
So here’s my speculation on what happened.
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After years of delay, BioShock Infinite comes out, and the cost of running a studio that big for that long working on one game meant that the cost of BI was pretty huge.
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BI comes out, and is a success, but not enough to recoup the cost of making the game.
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2k decides to shut down Irrational, which they wholly own already.
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Ken Levine wants to take a core team and form a new lean Studio like the old Irrational. One of his colleagues at 2k hears of it and suggests forming the studio within the 2k umbrella instead.
I thought he sold Irrational to Take-2 years ago (2006 IIRC).
Wikipedia reports Irrational was bought by Take Two in 2006:
On January 9, 2006, Take-Two Interactive announced that they had purchased Irrational, and would publish their games under the 2K Games label.
So, this is probably not even Ken’s decision, he is just the bearer of the news?
Even if B:I exceeded expectations, they still might not have had any more use for Irrational. Were they going to work on another Bioshock game? Even if they were, was there are particular reason for Irrational to do it instead of another team (ala Bioshock 2)? It depends on what they had coming down the pipeline for them. As far as I know, nobody had heard anything about Irrational’s next title, which is not a particularly good sign. Irrational may make shooters well, but it still depends on if Irrational’s kind of shooter (at their cost) is a space 2K wants to be in right now.
Maybe Levine wanted to leave Irrational intact, but 2K was going to shut down the studio without him. It seemed like kind of a prestige brand within 2K, but without Levine, they might not have figured that prestige would stick.
I’m just waiting for Levine to announce that his new 2K studio will focus on F2P mobile games.
I’m hoping that we’ll get a new SWAT game out of this, at least.
Replayable, narrative-driven. He states replayable twice, so he must be keen on Rust/DayZ/Minecraft.
I wouldn’t describe Rust/DayZ/Minecraft as narrative driven at all, maybe player-driven-narrative.
This seems like wise management, imo. It’s more likely the AA sort of game that Bioshock represents is dead; the future is either drop dead expensive AAA shooters, or scaled back in team size but more ambitious in scope, indie games. Observe the Remember Me developer declaring bankruptcy.
I don’t think it shattered sales record. It sold decently, inside of the top 10 of the month of release. If I had to make a guess, I would say it broke even, but that’s it (5 years of development…).
Candy Crush then. Remember all the narrative there? Darn those gumdrops!
Two words: Sugar Shock Saga.
God, not another one!!
Again, this is an insightful understanding of the marketplace’s conception of value. Those companies that are putting out 10+ hour gameplay linear corridor games are just not doing well right now, not at the AAA $60 console price point. It’s funny because this exact problem is the one facing Republique; it’s a linear corridor AAA style game on the iPad and everyone hates it, because linear corridor games are boring and done. All the kids play construction kit games like Minecraft, where they can cash in their infinite time for endless gameplay, or FtP games, or AAA shooters. Steam helps but it also doesn’t generate the $10m+ income the old AA model needed to survive.
Replayable, narrative-driven.
Visual Novels? Japanese Dating Sims? :P
I seem to recall reading Levine didn’t have anything to to with the actual development of SWAT 4 and stated that he’d design it quite differently, but was very happy with the result. Not sure who owns the rights for it either. That said, it’s shocking there hasn’t been a SWAT 5 yet.
I think that some of this writing’s been on the wall for a while. There were some pretty strong resumes that signed onto Irrational during the development of BI, and then jumped ship fairly quickly long before the game came out. That seemed…odd and a little bad at the time. Then Ken’s next big project is announced–and it’s him working on a high-profile screenplay.