Bioshock Developer Irrational Games To Shut Down

Bioshock developer Irrational Games is being buried at sea, after it was revealed in a letter from president Ken Levine that the hugely successful studio will be closing its doors for good once the final piece of Bioshock Infinite DLC is released.

This well may well spell the end of the Bioshock franchise as we know it, as the SWAT 4 and System Shock 2 developer looks to wind down and lay-off all but fifteen of the studio’s members in the immediate future..



Irrational Games' President Ken Levine
In a letter on their official website, Levine said "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."

He continued; "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."

Levine co-founded Irrational Games way back in 1997 along with Jon Chey and Rob Fermier, immediately producing the rapturously received System Shock 2, the precursor to Bioshock as we know it. From there on the team continued with moderate success thanks to games such as Freedom Force, Tribes: Vengeance and SWAT 4, before striking gold with Bioshock.

Levine is now keen to make inroads into the digital market, focusing on highly-replayable narrative driven games. He’ll still be working under the umbrella of Take Two but with a vastly smaller development team making games for the core audience.

It’s not all doom and gloom for Bioshock fans though, as Take-Two may well continue the series using another developer, with the franchise now in 2K’s hands. For now, the final project for the Irrational dev team is the Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea Episode 2 DLC, which is scheduled for release on March 25.

Do you think this is the end of Bioshock as we know it?What sort of games do you hope Levine and his team will work on next?Post your commiserations below...