Ken Levine leaving Irrational Games

by Nick Dowell

In a press release, Ken Levine, on of the foudners of Irrational Games, the company behind the Bioshock series, announced that he is “winding down” the company to start a new endeavor at Take-Two. This change will result in laying off all but 15 employees of Irrational.

“There’s no great way to lay people off,” he says. “…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.”

Staff members will have access to the studio for some time to say their goodbyes and prepare their portfolios. Take-Two will also be on hand to discuss job opportunities, and a recruiting day will take place to let third party studios and publishers hold interviews with departing Irrational staff.

Levine says this move comes from his desire to work on a smaller team.

“...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.”

He goes on to talk about his 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.”

To end the release, Ken thanked everyone involved with the success of his projects:

“Thanks to Irrational and 2K’s passion in developing the games, and the fans who believe in it, BioShock has generated retail revenues of over a half billion dollars and secured an iconic place in gaming. I’m handing the reins of our creation, the BioShock universe, to 2K so our new venture can focus entirely on replayable narrative. If we’re lucky, we’ll build something half as memorable as BioShock."

An outpouring of support of has come from the game development community, primarily on Twitter, where game developers and journalists alike have been endlessly retweeting posts about open positions.

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Source: Irrational Games

Photo credits:
Irrational Logo: StickWiddlers
Bioshock Infinite: Wikipedia