BioShock Director Ken Levine Reveals More Regarding Closure of Irrational, Claims it Came as a Surprise

Ken Levine, the mastermind behind the BioShock series, has openly discussed the closure of Irrational Games, explaining that it was a complex situation ultimately driven by corporate decisions made by parent company Take-Two Interactive. The unexpected studio closure in 2014 left Levine taken aback.

In a conversation with Edge (reported by GamesRadar), Levine admitted that the shutdown of Irrational was complex and left him feeling overwhelmed. As an artist, he explained, he suddenly found himself needing to manage, a task for which he had no prior experience or expertise.

Ken Levine mentioned that his mental state was quite chaotic while creating “BioShock Infinite“, possibly one of the factors leading to Rod Fergusson being brought in to assist in completing the project. He stated, “I was under immense stress, many personal issues were arising in my life at the time, and to make matters worse, both my parents passed away. I felt drained and didn’t believe I had the team’s trust anymore.

He mentioned that his aim was to initiate something fresh with Take-Two, allowing Irrational to persist independently without him. “Consequently, I didn’t keep the name Irrational (the studio underwent a rebranding as Ghost Story Games). I assumed they would carry on. However, it wasn’t my company–I sold the company, so I worked for Take-Two, and the studio belonged to them.

Levine stated that the closure of Irrational was a corporate decision, and at that time, he wasn’t mentally prepared to serve as an effective leader for the team. He suggested that if Irrational had continued, a remastered version of “BioShock” could have been a suitable project for them to tackle. This would have allowed them to establish a new creative director structure and then build on it once they felt ready to create the next installment in the BioShock series. However, he felt he wasn’t capable of being an effective leader at that point.

Currently, Levine is focusing on “Judas,” an action-packed FPS being developed by Ghost Story Games, which appears to be slated for release sometime in 2023. Before diving into his latest venture, however, Irrational Studios was properly shut down (as much as possible given the circumstances).

As a fellow gamer speaking about my gaming team, I held our members in high regard. When we learned that the company was planning to disband, we made it our mission to minimize the impact of layoffs as much as possible. We organized numerous job fairs for our team, granted them continued access to the studio, offered substantial severance packages, and even provided meals during this challenging time.

It wasn’t great, but I felt I had reached my limit as their leader. I knew that whatever came next would require extensive research and development for quite some time. The dilemma is obvious when you consider a situation where you have 300 people on board, though, because it’s challenging to manage such a team during a multi-year R&D project, which is common in large studios.

It seems that the progress on ‘Judas’ may have been smoother than it seemed to be during ‘BioShock Infinite’s development, but only time will tell. At present, 2K’s Cloud Chamber studio is engaged in developing ‘BioShock 4’, though specific details about this project are still scarce.

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2025-01-09 20:43