Irrational Games chiude: Ken Levine lascia BioShock

Irrational Games chiude: Ken Levine lascia BioShock
Con un lungo post pubblicato sul sito ufficiale, Ken Levine annuncia la chiusura prossima di Irrational Games a 17 anni dalla fondazione. Lo studio, noto la scorsa generazione per la saga di BioShock, cesserà di esistere in favore di un piccolo team formato da Levine stesso e altre quindici persone che eviteranno il licenziamento previsto per tutti gli altri componenti del team. Lo studio terminerà i lavori sull'ultimo DLC di BioShock Infinite prima di chiudere definitivamente i battenti. In tal proposito, <b>Levine</b> afferma che non lavorerà più alla saga, sulla quale diritti di sfruttamento passeranno totalmente nelle mani di Take-Two. Il fondatore della società si dice ovviamente dispiaciuto per chi perderà il lavoro e assicura che farà il possibile per assicurar loro il miglior supporto possibile in questa fase difficile. Dal canto suo, insieme al nuovo piccolo studio, si occuperà solamente di progetti indirizzati al mercato digitale e fortemente incentrati sulla narrativa, rispettando dunque la filosofia che contraddistingue BioShock.
Leggi la news completa: Irrational Games chiude: Ken Levine lascia BioShock

ma che caz...

Ma Bioshock Infinite ha generato perdite mostruose visto che è costato 200 milioni di dollari o è stata una sommatoria di altre cose?

Proprio fulmine a ciel sereno..

no no no

perchè perchè perchè.

ma bioshock non ha mica venduto male, non capisco.

irrational faceva capolavori, perchè chiuderla??

questa è una di quelle news che ti fanno capire come tutto stia andando a prostitute 

Problemi interni di vedute con 2K ? Altrimenti non me la spiego mica sta chiusura.

è una trollata, vero?

allucinante,ma com'è possibile...

Raga leggetevi quello che ha scritto KL e capirete tutto, non centrano ne perdite ne bilanci (a quanto dice nel suo lungo scritto), sostanzialmente penso cercasse nuovi stimoli.

A Message From Ken Levine When Jon Chey, Rob Fermier and I founded Irrational Games seventeen years ago, our mission was to make visually unique worlds and populate them with singular characters.

We built Rapture and Columbia, the Von Braun and The Rickenbacker, the Freedom Fortress and some of the nastiest basements a SWAT team ever set foot into.  We created Booker and Elizabeth, the Big Daddy and the Little Sister, MidWives and ManBot. In that time, Irrational has grown larger and more successful than we could have conceived when we began our three-person studio in a living room in Cambridge, MA. It’s been the defining project of my professional life.

Now Irrational Games is about to roll out the last DLC for BioShock Infinite and people are understandably asking: What’s next?

Seventeen years is a long time to do any job, even the best one. And working with the incredible team at Irrational Games is indeed the best job I’ve ever had. While I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together, 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.  In many ways, it will be a return to how we started: a small team making games for the core gaming audience.  

I am winding down Irrational Games as you know it. I’ll be starting a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two.  That is going to mean parting ways with all but about fifteen members of the Irrational team.   There’s no great way to lay people off, and 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. 

Besides financial support, the staff will have access to the studio for a period of time to say their goodbyes and put together their portfolios. Other Take-Two studios will be on hand to discuss opportunities within the company, and we’ll be hosting a recruiting day where we’ll be giving 3rd party studios and publishers a chance to hold interviews with departing Irrational staff.*

What’s next?

In time we will announce a new endeavor with a 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.

When I first contemplated what I wanted to do, it became very clear to me that we were going to need a long period of design. Initially, I thought the only way to build this venture was with a classical startup model, a risk I was prepared to take. But when I talked to Take-Two about the idea, they convinced me that there was no better place to pursue this new chapter than within their walls. After all, they’re the ones who believed in and supported BioShock in the first place.

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.

We do our best to update an FAQ in this space as questions come in.

 

-Ken Levine
@iglevine

*If you’re a 3rd party interested in interviewing some of the best game developers in the world, please contact chris.bigelow@2k.com

Modificata da IcoUeda, 18 February 2014 - 07:33 PM.