Irrational Games essentially shuttered

[Pulsar_t]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... ething-new



I guess our games will become smaller in scope in the future, seeing that this an ongoing trend.

[Stark]

I'm ok with smaller scope in high quality games. What I'm worried about are 'Shock games without Levine.

[MrEco]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I've gathered from the article.

Ken Levine wants to "wind down" from making big budget triple A games such as those in the Bioshock franchise. He wants to focus making smaller more narrative focused digital titles with high replay value. And his answer is to lay off all but 15 of the employee's from his studio in order to accomplish this goal?

I'm sorry... what? His goal is a worthwhile one, no doubt about that, but laying off so many employee's and closing the doors on the company he founded just seems completely unnecessary. If I heard right about 200 people worked there. You're telling me that he couldn't have made a smaller more narrative focused game with a team of 200? Like that's too big? I mean at the least couldn't he split up the company into multiple small teams and have them all work on different projects or something?

[BogusMeatFactory]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I've gathered from the article.

Ken Levine wants to "wind down" from making big budget triple A games such as those in the Bioshock franchise. He wants to focus making smaller more narrative focused digital titles with high replay value. And his answer is to lay off all but 15 of the employee's from his studio in order to accomplish this goal?

I'm sorry... what? His goal is a worthwhile one, no doubt about that, but laying off so many employee's and closing the doors on the company he founded just seems completely unnecessary. If I heard right about 200 people worked there. You're telling me that he couldn't have made a smaller more narrative focused game with a team of 200? Like that's too big? I mean at the least couldn't he split up the company into multiple small teams and have them all work on different projects or something?

I think the big issue is also being tied to a publisher. With that large of a crew you need more money going into paying the people involved in the game's development. He also mentions wanting to have a more hands-on approach with the fans, so I am thinking that Kickstarter may be in the mix here as well.

It sucks that people are losing their job, but it comes with the territory. I have a friend who has worked on numerous Triple A titles and has to find a new job yearly.

If you make more risks in game development, you aren't just risking making a bad game, but risking losing a lot of money, so he is is preparing for that chance.

I am not condoning the loss of the jobs, but I can see why it is happening the way it is happening.

[isiolia]

From the outside, it seems like he could have just left with a few people to make a new, smaller studio, and had someone else take over Irrational.

Could be internal politics though. For all we know, 2k didn't want the studio without Levine.

[graffix_13]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I've gathered from the article.

Ken Levine wants to "wind down" from making big budget triple A games such as those in the Bioshock franchise. He wants to focus making smaller more narrative focused digital titles with high replay value. And his answer is to lay off all but 15 of the employee's from his studio in order to accomplish this goal?

I'm sorry... what? His goal is a worthwhile one, no doubt about that, but laying off so many employee's and closing the doors on the company he founded just seems completely unnecessary. If I heard right about 200 people worked there. You're telling me that he couldn't have made a smaller more narrative focused game with a team of 200? Like that's too big? I mean at the least couldn't he split up the company into multiple small teams and have them all work on different projects or something?

I think the big issue is also being tied to a publisher. With that large of a crew you need more money going into paying the people involved in the game's development. He also mentions wanting to have a more hands-on approach with the fans, so I am thinking that Kickstarter may be in the mix here as well.

It sucks that people are losing their job, but it comes with the territory. I have a friend who has worked on numerous Triple A titles and has to find a new job yearly.

If you make more risks in game development, you aren't just risking making a bad game, but risking losing a lot of money, so he is is preparing for that chance.

I am not condoning the loss of the jobs, but I can see why it is happening the way it is happening.

I'm curious...how is the money in that line of work? Is it something your friend talks about?

For me, I would LOVE to make games but the poor job security may steer me into another career path. Then again, if it's something you love to do then money isn't everything.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I'm curious...how is the money in that line of work? Is it something your friend talks about?

For me, I would LOVE to make games but the poor job security may steer me into another career path. Then again, if it's something you love to do then money isn't everything.

It really depends on what you are doing. A lot of times he is placed in cleanup team that is hired by the lead development team to do odd programming jobs, much like what happened to Deus Ex: Human Revolution's boss fights (but not nearly as crappy). The pay isn't anything ground breaking, but it gets the job done.

He loves what he does, but the stress of no job security has weighed down on him and his family as they have moved across the country so many times now.

[MrPopo]

I'm curious...how is the money in that line of work? Is it something your friend talks about?

For me, I would LOVE to make games but the poor job security may steer me into another career path. Then again, if it's something you love to do then money isn't everything.

From the various industry surveys I've seen, you tend to make 75-100% of an equivalent corporate job, and as mentioned you don't get the job security. You also tend to pull longer hours (especially in the last few months before ship). The current state of the industry is really a young man's game; married people and older people who have other priorities in life don't do well.

[Pulsar_t]

I read somewhere that they're keeping hush-hush on the business end of Bioshock Infinite. Maybe it didn't break even?

[isiolia]

I read somewhere that they're keeping hush-hush on the business end of Bioshock Infinite. Maybe it didn't break even?

It's possible, considering how long it was in development and all. (thinking of the Gamasutra article?)