Ken Levine Announces Layoffs and Huge Changes for Irrational Games

Ken Levine and the team at Irrational Games have spent seventeen years making amazing games, most notably the brilliant Bioshock series, and with the release of Bioshock Infinite last year, it seemed like they were ready to continue riding high. With the final Burial at Sea DLC for Bioshock Infinite bringing the series to an end, it may be time for something new. Ken Levine has just announced that there are some major changes on the horizon for himself and Irrational Games, and unfortunately that brings company layoffs along with it.

“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 also states that in addition to providing as much financial support for their former employees as they can, they will also work to help them find new jobs in the industry, as well as hosting a recruiting day to help place them with other 3rd party developers and publishers.

While this may be the end of Irrational Games as we know it, the future of Bioshock is still up in the air, with Levine handing over the reins to 2K Games, which means we may still see something in the future, just without Levine at the helm. Levine and his new team will be staying with Take-Two, and they plan to develop purely digital, narrative driven games with great replay value.