It’s a somewhat clinical way to phrase it, isn’t it? “BioShock Developer Irrational Games Changes Focus.” It was part of our headline leading into the Irrational Games news that broke yesterday – it was part of every headline I read, the central focus of every news piece. Change of direction. Change of focus.Yesterday, Creative Director Ken Levine announced that the Boston-based Irrational Games, known for System Shock 2, Freedom Force and of course, the BioShock series, was dramatically downsizing, turning its attention away from disc-based big budget games towards smaller narrative-driven digital offerings.I’ve already seen Levine’s new direction being championed as yet another sign of the changing times, another middle finger directed toward the exhausting triple A hamster wheel. No longer will he be shackled to the grind that comes with big-budget retail distribution; he can now focus on fostering “the most direct relationship with his fans” through smaller games released on digital platforms. Like Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski, Levine is rejecting the mainstream big-budget model and all the crap that comes with it.
Working with a smaller team certainly promises to be a good fit for Levine, who by many accounts never took to the traditional model of making big mainstream video games. His creative methods have been described as more abstract, less structured and more freewheeling than most in his position. He has also been accused of being a perfectionist, and perhaps this uneasy relationship between unfettered creativity and the desire to polish a product within an inch of its life will be ironed out with the luxury of long development periods, a smaller head count, and less pressure from publishers, retailers and fans overall.The considerable flip side of this “change of focus” is the fact that 90% of the employees at Irrational have now lost their jobs. Did these employees know that they were going to be let go? I don’t know. Certainly, the news came as a surprise to a great many of us who care about the business of games, particularly since Irrational was not a studio that appeared to be struggling to stay afloat. Last year’s BioShock Infinite sold more than 4 million units and was held up by critics as a shining bastion of originality in the otherwise grimly predictable rabble of first person shooters. Levine makes art, we cried. Better still, his art makes money!
Despite the critical plaudits and press releases boasting copies of Infinite sold, perhaps Irrational – as it stood – simply wasn’t sustainable. I’m not the first person to question the idea that a publisher would let go 90% of employees in one of its most lauded studios solely because its creative head wanted to explore a new direction. There were perhaps – and I suggest this cautiously - other reasons behind the disbanding, financial reasons tied up in contracts and commercial shortfalls. This is pure (and highly depressing) speculation until somebody speaks out - if they ever do.
What we can be sure of, is that a lot of people are going through a really tough time right now; wondering what they’re going to do next, wondering if they have to uproot their lives. As Brendan Keogh righteously notes in his piece ‘Games for Humans’ (which you must read, and then question why there aren't more unions in the industry), it’s all too easy to become distracted by the cult of Levine, by this idea that Irrational’s creative output belongs to Levine and Levine alone. BioShock Infinite was not made by one person. In fact, it was also made by Rod Fergusson, Leonie Manshanden, Adrian Murphy, Scott Sinclair, Shawn Robertson, Grant Chang, Matt Boehm, Jim Christopher, Jon Mangagil, Pete Paquette, Shamil Rasizade, Jeremy Carson, Ian Davis, Gwen Frey, Calen Brait, Chad King, Paul Presley, Laura Zimmermann, Jorge Lacera, Mauricio Tejerina, Robb Waters, Gavin Goulden, Adam Bolton, Stephen Alexander, Jeremy Griffith, Kyle Williams, Jamie McNulty, Steve Allen, Charles Bradbury, Frank DaPonte, Scott Duquette, John Fuhrer, Dan Keating, Murray Kraft, Chad LaClair, Brian McNett, Mike Snight, Spencer Luebbert, Forrest Dowling, Andres Elias Gonzalez Tahhan, Elisabeth Beinke, Shawn Elliott, Paul Green, Patrick Haslow, Amanda Jeffrey, Steve Lee, Albert Meranda, Jason Mojica, Seth Rosen, Francois Roughol, James Selen, Adrian Balanon, Adrian Chatriwala, Alexx Kay, Sean Madigan, Steve McNally, Justin Sonnekalb, Jordan Thomas, Kristina Drzaic, Drew Holmes, Joe Fielder, Andrew Mitchell, Elena Siegman, Mike Syrnyk, James Edwards, Ashley Hoey, Sophie Mackey, Don Roy, Sarah Rosa, Nicole Sandoval, Mike Soden, Christopher Kline, John Abercrombie, Tim Austin, Matt Helbig, Erik Irland, Dan Kaplan, Shane Matthews, Iskander Umarov, Nick Raines, Arun Rao, Dan Scholten, Dustin Vertrees, Steve Ellmore, Dan Amato, Steve Anichini, Jamie Culpon, Michael Kraack, Jeremy Lerner, Doug Marien, Kristofel Munson, Ian Pilipski, Scott Haraldsen, Pat Balthrop, Jim Bonney, Dan Costello, Chris Duffey, Jonathan Grover, Dan Johnson, Katie Lafaw, Jonathan Rubinger, Jeff Seamster, Kate Baxter, Joshua M. Davis, David Fox, Michael Swiderek, Robert Tzong, Amanda Cosmos, Todd Raffray, Tara Voelker, Christopher Alberto, Jim Beals, Bill Fryer, Tim Ahern, Kyle Allison, Jeremy Almeida, Dan Beaulieu, Elizabeth Bergeron, Josh Bjornson, Tyler Caraway, Adam Cohen, Raymond Corsetti, Edmund Dubois, Charles Dworetz, Jonny Fawcett, Chris Fidalgo, Gage Hackford, Andrew Howard, Amy Keating, Patrick Knight, Cassandra Lease, Joshua Luther, Austin Maestre, Mike McCullough, Yu Heng Mo, Chris Moore, Shelly Njoo, Glenn A. Palmer, Lorry Rocha, Alex Scokel, Alex Teebagy, Jason Tocci, Nicholas Troy, Greg Vargas, Matt Wetzel, Husam Al-Ziab, Eric Barker, Zoe Brookes. Bill Gardner, Ratana Huot, Jesse Kearns, Dylan Schmidt, Keith Shetler, Michelle Sinclair, Tracy Ryan, Alexis Yilmaz, Shane Smith, Trevor Chaplin, Ray Holbrook, Rob King, Matthew Krawczyk, Jonathan LoPorto, Kayla Belmore, Aisha Coston, Ashlee Flagg, Tim Sivret, Troy Baker, Courtnee Draper, Heather Gordon, Kiff VandenHeuvel, Laura Bailey, Kimberly D. Brooks, Lyndsy Kail, Oliver Vaquer, Ray Carbonel, Jennifer Hale, Bill Lobley, Keith Szarabajka, Steve Blum, Anthony Brophy, T.C. Carson, Vic Chao, Erin Cole, Dioni Michelle Collins, Jesse Corti, Roger Cross, Joey D’Auria, Stephanie D’Abruzzo, Greg Ellis, Robin Atkin Downes, Daheli Hall, Brad Grusnick, Scott Holst, Richard Herd, Brian Kimmet, Neil Kaplan, Matthew Yang King, Arif S. Kinchen, Yuri Lowenthal, Misty Lee, Jim Meskimen, Tess Masters, Philip Moon, Mimi Michaels, Elle Newlands, Masasa Moyo, Dina Pearlman, Liam O’Brien, Amanda Philipson, Patrick Pinney, Brent Popolizio, Sam Riegel, Cindy Robinson, Lori Rom, Jeff Seamster, T.Ryder Smith, Spike Spencer, April Stewart, Mark Allan Stewart, Kaiji Tang, Faruq Tauheed,Oliver Vaquer, Gwendoline Yen, Kevin Yamada, Patti Yasutake, Catherine Zambri, Courtney Adair, Joey Armstrong, Nick Bishop, Cameron Crook, Erica Denning, Gil Espanto, Jose Gutierrez, Sasha de Guzman, Jennifer Heinser, Sharon Her, Michael Howard, Winnie Hsieh, Nicole Hunter, Matt Jackson, Marcy Lee, Shawna-Mara Kaia Lee, Kamasu Livingston, Edwin Li, Jon Mangagil, Christina Lowrey, Amanda McKamey, Anton Maslennikov, Jose Montesinos, Kirill Mikhaylov, Steve Park, Kurt Osiander, Sari Sabella, Dennis Ruel, Andy Strong, Aaron Teixeira, Anthony Tominia, Paulette Trinh, Mike Wang, Bryce Wang, Cais Wang, Neely Wang, Brad Whelan, Maria Zamaniego, Garry Schyman, Jim Bonney, Scott Bradlee, Tony Babino, Tom Abbott, Scott Bradlee, Sean Condron, Adam Kubota, Allan Mednard, Paul Saca, Tim Brooks, Clay Hine, Drew McMillan, Clay Hine, Miche Braden, Jessy Carolina, Marc Lacuesta, Maureen Murphy, Duncan Watt, Noah Harley, Mario J. Maggio, and Justin Frye and oh god I'm sorry if I've missed anybody.Hearteningly, almost instantly, the industry rallied online to help those who have lost their jobs get back on their feet. Studios have used the Twitter hashtag #irrationaljobs to advertise studio openings, and IGN’s own Mitch Dyer has built a publicly editable Google Doc to assemble them all in a single place. There’s something very special about the video game industry, and it’s never more evident than in the way it rallies together to help those who have been laid off.
As for those of us who sit outside of game development, the fans, we’ll all look forward to Ken Levine’s next game, his narrative-driven digitally distributed debut. But Irrational, as we know it, has not just changed focus, or simply changed direction - Irrational Games is dead.
Long Live Irrational Games. Lucy O'Brien is Entertainment Editor at IGN AU. Follow her ramblings on IGN or Twitter.
