The studio that created the BioShock series of games is closing its doors after seventeen years.

The company is poised to roll out the final DLC for BioShock Infinite,
but founder Ken Levine has his eyes on something new, and that means
starting up a new development studio. According to his message on the
studio's website:

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.

Levine plans on keeping the new studio within the Take-Two parent
company, and is leaving his company's main IP with 2K Games.

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.

Boston is turning out to be a rough place for game developers. Our
thoughts are with the talented folks who lost their jobs.

Read Ken Levine's full announcement on the Irrational Games homepage.

EDIT: Our pal Alex Rubens from eSportsMax has started up a list of companies that might be looking for new talent from the Boston area - not just from Irrational, but also from Turbine, who was also hit with layoffs last week. He has posted it as a Google doc and encourages any other developers looking for new talent to add their names to the list! Check it out HERE.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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