Just saw on Rock Paper Shotgun that somebody released a Bioshock mod to change the 2k Boston logo to an Irrational Games logo.
Almost enough to make me want to remove “-nointro” from my command line.
Thankfully, it eliminates all the other intro movies, and just plays itself. Even better than -nointro imho.
Yeah, thanks for pointing me to that. They’ll always be Irrational.
Additionally I immediately felt the urge to replay System Shock 2 when I saw this. And I am only one hour into Bioshock yet. :)
Good to know that it removes the other logos – I’ll probably go ahead and install it.
The decision to change the name was the right one, but it’s a bummer for a lot of people. I’m sure Ken is happy to see proof that people are invested enough in his work to do stuff like this.
Jesus. If they wanted to be Irrational, they wouldn’t have sold their company. This was a conscious choice by the owners!
It was. While I’m sad to see the Irrational name go, I think it’s awesome that BioShock is turning out to be so popular. Take 2 wanted people to associate the game with their company badly enough to push through a name change at the last minute. That’s probably a good thing for the folks at… er, Take 2 Boston. Yes?
Sure. I thought I was being clear by saying, “The decision to change the name was the right one, but it’s a bummer for a lot of people.”
Obviously, the people at formerly-Irrational weighed their options and went with the one that would allow them to actually make the game they wanted to make. It was a good trade off. It was the right decision. It doesn’t mean that it couldn’t have been a little bittersweet for Ken, and it certainly doesn’t mean that some of their fans were disappointed.
All I was saying was that it must be nice to know that people really care about the stuff you make.
that’s cool
As owners of the company, it is Take Two / 2K Games’ right to rename Irrational to whatever they want, but that doesn’t mean their decision is a good one. Irrational is about a thousand times better as a brand name than 2K Boston/2K Australia.
Dumb rename, regardless of any nostalgia factor.
Isn’t 2K an individually operating unit of Take 2? They aren’t Take 2 Boston, they’re 2K Boston. Otherwise it’s like saying Zenimax made Oblivion…
2K is just a publishing label, like EA Games or EA Sports or Sierra or what have you. It’s all Take-Two Interactive.
I’m sure Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band would of been just as good, well known, and loved if it was by Capitol Records UK Studio Artists instead of a little known group called the Beatles.
painfully good analogy
Interestingly, the NYT review of Bioshock refers to the developer as Irrational Games, without the slightest hint of irony.
Fuck the suits at take 2, they would never fund a game like bioshock.
I’m not so sure it was last minute. Certainly the name change had already been decided when the manual/packaging was made, the game entered cert, etc. Seems like 2K probably just waited until much closer to release before announcing it.
Wouldn’t it be a better analogy if the album cover had a logo for the record company that was as big as the logo for the band name, though? I mean, lets face it, in games they get equal “face-time” as the developer promo pieces.
I’m reminded of the movie “Spirited Away…”
Heard today that Firaxis is looking to move from its Hunt Valley location and become rebranded as a 2k studio. Guess as long as they can keep putting Sid’s name on the box, it doesn’t matter. :\
Yeah, they’d pretty much have to move-- “2K Hunt Valley” starts sounding like something you’d hear on Deadwood if you say it too fast.