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Irrational Games

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Irrational Games
Formerly
  • Irrational Games
  • (1997–2007, 2009–2017)
  • 2K Boston
  • (2007–2009)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Founded1997; 28 years ago (1997)
Founder
DefunctFebruary 23, 2017; 7 years ago (2017-02-23)
FateRebranded
SuccessorGhost Story Games
Headquarters
Westwood, Massachusetts
,
US
Key people
Ken Levine (creative director)
Number of employees
15 (2014)
Parent2K (2006–2017)

Irrational Games (known as 2K Boston between 2007 and 2009) was an American video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier. Take-Two Interactive acquired the studio in 2006. The studio was best known for two of the games in the BioShock series, as well as System Shock 2, Freedom Force, and SWAT 4. In 2014, following the release of BioShock Infinite, Levine opted to significantly restructure the studio from around 90 to 15 employees and focus more on narrative games. In February 2017, the studio announced that it had been rebranded as Ghost Story Games and considered a fresh start from the original Irrational name, though still operating at the same business subsidiary under Take-Two.

History

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Formation and initial games (1997-2005)

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Irrational Games was formed in 1997 by Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier, former Looking Glass Studios employees that left on good terms to start their own game development firm.[1] They initially ran on a shoestring budget, running out of Levine's apartment.[2] At that time, as a small studio, they were dependent on publisher support; their first project was to develop a single-player campaign for the game FireTeam, being published by Multitude, Inc., but within three weeks, Multitude decided to drop the single-player campaign, leaving the three without any job.[3][4]

They returned to Looking Glass looking for any opportunities. Looking Glass founder Paul Neurath agreed to give them a small budget, an office within their studio, and gave them the opportunity to work on a sequel to System Shock. System Shock 2 was released in 1999, and while a critical success, it did not reach sales expectations.[2] After System Shock 2 was released, Chey returned to Australia while Fermier went to Ensemble Studios.[4] Irrational continue to work with Looking Glass to create Deep Cover, a project inspired by Thief: The Dark Project set during the Cold War, though this was eventually cancelled around 2000.[5]

Irrational returned to seeking other projects from other publishers to be more independent from Looking Glass. They landed work with Crave Entertainment, from which they started work on The Lost, a third-person action game inspired by Dante's Inferno, that was targetting the PlayStation 2. Levine described multiple difficulties with developing The Lost. One issue was handling technical issues with the game engine, as inititially they had planned to use the LithTech engine, but later switched to the Unreal Engine due to difficulties with making the game work on the PlayStation 2. A second problem arose as Crave started to have their own financial problems, and pushed on Irrational to continue development with a reduced budget. While Irrational finished most of the game, The Lost was eventually cancelled by 2002, with Irrational taking the loss on its development time.[4]

During development of The Lost, Irrational started a second project with Crave, the turn-based superhero-theme Freedom Force. Chey, while still in Australia, returned to Irrational by setting up development offices in Australia in 2000,[6] where most of the work on Freedom Force was completed. Crave's monetary issues led the game to be published in 2002 by the EA Partners label of Electronic Arts. The game performed moderately well, but failed to give Irrational any significant royalities.[4]

Shortly after the cancellation of The Lost, Vivendi Games tapped Irrational to develop a single-player campaign based on the Tribes series, which had traditionally been multiplayer shooters in the past, and posed a challenge to craft a narrative around. This led to some difficulties with Vivendi, as at one point Levine was fired from the narrative position, replaced by two writers from Hollywood, only to be later rehired to complete the story. Tribes: Vengeance was eventually released in 2004.[4] Irrational continued to work with Vivendi on a sequel in the Police Quest series, SWAT 4, released in 2005.[4]

Acquisition by Take-Two and the BioShock series (2006-2013)

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Since the release of System Shock 2, Levine had been trying to pitch a sequel to publishers without success. Starting around 2002, Levine led a small development team at Irrational to create BioShock, a game with a similar narrative approach and free-form approach as System Shock 2, using idea of having the player navigate through three factions, drones that carried a desirable resource, protectors that defended the drones, and harvesters that attempted to gain the resource from the drones.[7][8] Irrational had difficulties selling this concept to publishers, as the concept of immersive sims like System Shock 2 was not considered profitable, but the company persisted and refined their ideas as word of a new immersive sim from Irrational began to spread in video game news coverage.[7] In 2004, Take-Two Interactive offered to publish the game based on the core drone/protector/harvester concept,[8] and then in 2006, acquired Irrational Games under its 2K publishing label.[9] Just prior to the release of BioShock in 2007, Irrational Games' Boston and Australian offices were rebranded as 2K Boston and 2K Australia.[10] BioShock released August 21 to wide critical acclaim and strong sales.

BioShock was released in August 2007, and was a critical and financial success. The game won several awards, and by 2013 had sold more than 4 million units.[2] Due to the success of the game, tied to the former Irrational Games name, both of their studios reverted to the original Irrational name in January 2010.[11]

Shortly after BioShock was released, rumors arose that many of the staff who had worked on the game were leaving 2K Boston/Australia. In 2007, five members of the 2K Boston team moved to a new 2K studio in Novato, California.[12] Soon after, 2K announced the formation of 2K Marin in Novato.[13]

Take-Two had pushed on Irrational to develop a BioShock sequel, but Levine was not interested, and instead initially saught to develop a new XCOM game. Take-Two assigned 2K Marin to develop BioShock 2.[14] By 2008, when Irrational's contract with Take-Two was under review, Levine had lost interest in the XCOM project, and instead negotiated to develop a new BioShock game.[15]: 51–2  The XCOM project work contined at 2K Mario, released in 2013 as The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.[16]

Development on BioShock Infinite, what would be Irrational's last game, started in 2008, about half a year after completion of the original BioShock. Following the game's public announcement in 2010, the company was pressured by 2K Games and the gaming consumers to make sure the title lived up to the expectations that the promotional material had set for it. Irrational hired more staff and allocated work to additional studios to help with the game, but this only served to complicate matters; from post-mortem interviews with Irrational staff, Levine was continually changing some of the core story beats for the game, which would dramatically change game assets that had already developed. Levine also admitted to difficulties in managing the larger staff. Conflicts over development leadership led to the departure of some high-level individuals in 2012. To bring the game back onto schedule for release, 2K hired industry professionals to assist Levine in managing the large team and focusing the game's content including eliminating planned multiplayer modes. BioShock Infinite was released by March 2013.[17]

Closure and transition to Ghost Story Games (2014-2017)

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Main article: Ghost Story Games

On February 18, 2014, Levine announced that the vast majority of the Irrational Games studio staff would be laid off, with all but fifteen members of the staff losing their positions. Levine said that he wanted to start "a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two," speaking to how much stress completing a large game like BioShock: Infinite had caused him.[18] Levine said, "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."[18] Levine had considered starting a new development studio for this, knowing that building the ideas would take several years before any game product would be made. Still, Take-Two offered to let him keep the division within Take-Two, with Levine saying that they told him, "there was no better place to pursue this new chapter than within their walls."[18] Take-Two considered this studio separate from Irrational Games, preventing Levine from using the name,[19] and shutting down Irrational Games shortly after Levine had made his decision in 2014.[20] Around 15 developers continued with Levine at this new studio;[19] the remaining 75 staff were laid off, though 2K offered a career fair to help find jobs for the displaced developers.[18][21] According to Levine, in the years after the layoffs, several of the former Irrational staff had rejoined Take-Two and 2K under the studios that were working on a new BioShock title, though Levine himself was not involved.[20]

By February 2017, Levine had announced the name of his new studio, Ghost Story Games, with the focus focus "to create immersive, story-driven games for people who love games that ask something of them".[22]

Games developed

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As Irrational Games

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Year Title Platform(s) Publisher Notes
1999 System Shock 2 Microsoft Windows Electronic Arts Co-developed with Looking Glass Studios
2002 Freedom Force Microsoft Windows Crave Entertainment
2004 Tribes: Vengeance Microsoft Windows Sierra Entertainment Assisted Irrational Games Canberra
2005 Freedom Force vs the 3rd Reich Microsoft Windows Vivendi Universal Games
SWAT 4 Microsoft Windows Sierra Entertainment
2006 SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate Microsoft Windows
2013 BioShock Infinite Microsoft Windows 2K Games
PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode One Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
2014 BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode Two Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 3
Xbox 360

As 2K Boston

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Year Title Platform(s) Publisher
2007 BioShock Microsoft Windows 2K Games
Xbox 360
2008 PlayStation 3

Cancelled video games

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References

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  1. ^ Keefer, John (March 31, 2006). "GameSpy Retro: Developer Origins, Page 5 of 19". GameSpy. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007.
  2. ^ a b c Allen, Josh (November 26, 2013). "Game Changer: Kevin Levine". Boston Magazine. Retrieved January 11, 2025.
  3. ^ Peel, Jeremy (April 5, 2021). "The story of Irrational, the studio that shut down to rediscover its roots". PC Gamer. Retrieved January 11, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Peel, Jeremy (January 3, 2025). "BioShock Infinite "may not have been the thing I wanted, but that doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't the thing the audience wanted": Ken Levine guides us through his entire gameography". GamesRadar. Retrieved January 11, 2025.
  5. ^ Looking Glass Studios' Cancelled Cold-War Era Thief Game. Noclip. October 22, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2025 – via YouTube.
  6. ^ "IGA Announces formation". Irrational Games. April 27, 2000. Archived from the original on February 3, 2001.
  7. ^ a b Parkin, Simon (April 17, 2014). "Rapture leaked: The true story behind the making of BioShock". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on April 21, 2014. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
  8. ^ a b "The Making Of: BioShock". Edge. July 23, 2012. Archived from the original on May 31, 2013. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
  9. ^ Jenkins, David (January 9, 2006). "Take-Two Acquires Irrational Games". Gamasutra. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  10. ^ "Irrational Games Renamed 2K Boston and 2K Australia". Business Wire. August 10, 2007. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
  11. ^ "The Return Of Irrational Games". Game Informer. Archived from the original on January 11, 2010. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
  12. ^ "Q&A: Ken Levine talks BioShock, reminisces about X-Com". GameSpot. March 20, 2009. Archived from the original on June 28, 2010. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  13. ^ "Take-Two confirms 2K Marin". GameSpot. December 17, 2007. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  14. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (August 12, 2010). "Levine: Why I passed on BioShock 2". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on January 4, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
  15. ^ Schreier, Jason (2021). Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5387-3548-0.
  16. ^ Plante, Chris (March 6, 2014). "The final years of Irrational Games, according to those who were there". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  17. ^ Schreier, Jason (May 10, 2021). "A look inside BioShock Infinite's troubled development". Polygon. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
  18. ^ a b c d Makuch, Eddie (February 18, 2014). "BioShock creator Irrational Games is shutting down". GameSpot. Archived from the original on June 27, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  19. ^ a b Morris, Chris (May 14, 2014). "Take-Two CEO open to buying more studios". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on May 14, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  20. ^ a b Stanton, Rich. "Ken Levine never expected Take-Two to shutter Irrational after Bioshock Infinite: 'The decision was made at a corporate level'". PC Gamer.
  21. ^ "Irrational Games closure led to 75 layoffs, job fair hosted 57 studios". Polygon. February 28, 2014. Archived from the original on April 15, 2014. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
  22. ^ Pereira, Chris (February 23, 2017). "Former BioShock Studio Irrational Games Adopts A New Name". GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 24, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  23. ^ "15 cancelled Xbox 360 games that should have never been cancelled".
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