Irrational Games essentially shuttered

[Forlorn Drifter]

While I appreciate the smaller games, indie games, and the like, I'm really tired of this whole movement towards Kickstarter and tiny studios doing another retro styled game without introducing anything new or offering anything outside of downloadable titles. (Not to say that would be the case here, but I get that vibe to an extent.)

I can't even hardly look at most gaming sites now without seeing a hundred and one different new Kickstarter things.

[Sload Soap]

I feel like we're getting half a story here, but I really can't understand why games journalism feels that events like this aren't worth more than merely reporting. I'd like to know why a lot of people from a seemingly successful and critically acclaimed studio have lost their jobs. Yeah, yeah it's only gaming but it seems like there's a bigger story beyond this. Even sports journalism has more integrity and balls.

/Rant. I'm sure it'll all come out soon enough.

[Xeogred]

Maybe we have the whole story though. As others have said and I've always heard over the years, this industry has zero job security. And maybe Ken has that power with this studio to nearly shut it down. I can't blame someone like him for wanting more creative freedom doing his own thing on a smaller scale.

Who knows, but I'm not really disappointed. This is more than likely the future, the industry has to change the AAA structure or this is only going to continue. The budgets and goals to break even have gone overboard. It could have been this, or the entire studio and Ken himself might have been without a job.

While I appreciate the smaller games, indie games, and the like, I'm really tired of this whole movement towards Kickstarter and tiny studios doing another retro styled game without introducing anything new or offering anything outside of downloadable titles. (Not to say that would be the case here, but I get that vibe to an extent.)

I can't even hardly look at most gaming sites now without seeing a hundred and one different new Kickstarter things.

I think I'm all for it. The medium needs a kick in the balls and change can be good.

I wasn't big on many indie games at all last gen (PS3/360), but I'm all for this direction things are going lately.

[Retrogamer0001]

Well, maybe now they can afford to put a decent save system in Bioshock Infinite...

[J T]

We will probably never know the whole story to this since many companies make you sign agreements that you won't discuss the details of your layoffs or speak poorly of the company in return for your severance pay. It sounds like Levine wanted to go indie and experiment with a non-shock franchise, but 2K wanted to keep him anyway. Maybe he signed a binding non-compete contract, or maybe they made him an offer to stay as some weird corporate-indie hybrid.

[Forlorn Drifter]

While I appreciate the smaller games, indie games, and the like, I'm really tired of this whole movement towards Kickstarter and tiny studios doing another retro styled game without introducing anything new or offering anything outside of downloadable titles. (Not to say that would be the case here, but I get that vibe to an extent.)

I can't even hardly look at most gaming sites now without seeing a hundred and one different new Kickstarter things.

I think I'm all for it. The medium needs a kick in the balls and change can be good.

I wasn't big on many indie games at all last gen (PS3/360), but I'm all for this direction things are going lately.

I guess my main issues are the focus on using Kickstarter, which I personally liked at first but have come to dislike to its overuse, and general nature, along with so many games being download only or computer focused. I know everything costs a lot and all, but I'd rather be able to buy this nifty six hour game on a disk I can keep rather than a download I could lose.

[MrPopo]

While I appreciate the smaller games, indie games, and the like, I'm really tired of this whole movement towards Kickstarter and tiny studios doing another retro styled game without introducing anything new or offering anything outside of downloadable titles. (Not to say that would be the case here, but I get that vibe to an extent.)

I can't even hardly look at most gaming sites now without seeing a hundred and one different new Kickstarter things.

I think I'm all for it. The medium needs a kick in the balls and change can be good.

I wasn't big on many indie games at all last gen (PS3/360), but I'm all for this direction things are going lately.

I guess my main issues are the focus on using Kickstarter, which I personally liked at first but have come to dislike to its overuse, and general nature, along with so many games being download only or computer focused. I know everything costs a lot and all, but I'd rather be able to buy this nifty six hour game on a disk I can keep rather than a download I could lose.

Have you considered burning the download to a disk?

As for the PC focus, that's to be expected. Dev costs for PC games are much lower (no need for expensive dev kits and licenses) and PC users are the type of people who are willing to take risks on things like Kickstarters.

[Xeogred]

While I appreciate the smaller games, indie games, and the like, I'm really tired of this whole movement towards Kickstarter and tiny studios doing another retro styled game without introducing anything new or offering anything outside of downloadable titles. (Not to say that would be the case here, but I get that vibe to an extent.)

I can't even hardly look at most gaming sites now without seeing a hundred and one different new Kickstarter things.

I think I'm all for it. The medium needs a kick in the balls and change can be good.

I wasn't big on many indie games at all last gen (PS3/360), but I'm all for this direction things are going lately.

I guess my main issues are the focus on using Kickstarter, which I personally liked at first but have come to dislike to its overuse, and general nature, along with so many games being download only or computer focused. I know everything costs a lot and all, but I'd rather be able to buy this nifty six hour game on a disk I can keep rather than a download I could lose.

This I can maybe meet halfway on. It's definitely gotten a little crazy with kickstarter, haha. But I definitely like seeing some key designers fall back on smaller scale projects and such lately. I think the kickstarter surge is maybe a little more proof how broke things were though, if that's what it takes to rebuild the middle ground for now I guess these trends will continue for a bit. Who knows.

I also want to say Japan hasn't really been on the AAA model for quite awhile now... outside of say Square Enix, Capcom, and Konami, unless it's outsourced we kind of stopped seeing a lot of big budget Japanese stuff last gen. We all know they've been focused on handhelds more for awhile now, but I hope the smaller studios, indie scene, more moving over to PC (like Treasure right now), etc, puts that awesome stuff on more than handheld platforms. I'm definitely all for that.

[Aramonde]

Irrational staff are all ready starting to find jobs

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/2289477/mi ... osure.html

[Xeogred]

Maybe they can save Halo.