Topic: Irrational Games is restructuring

[idolminds]

Well, thats a bummer.

2K taking over Bioshock franchise, bunch of layoffs at Irrational.

[Cools!]

Sucks for the employees that are going to get let go. Maybe a new, smaller company will help them get back to their roots so there's hope for more awesome games in the future.

[MysterD]

[idolminds]

This is interesting.

[Cools!]

So basically they went over budget and Levine can't manage a big team and/or is a bitch to work with.

[PyroMenace]

I think Levine going over budget on something because he's got too many big ideas doesn't come to me as a surprise, neither does people getting frustrated doing crunch time on a big project such as that. That article was dumb, and tries to throw dirt on people that don't really deserve it. Levine probably made a smart move to change up his management style and team size, but it still sucks for all those people that lost their jobs. However that seems to be happening a lot in the industry.

[gpw11]

I didn't really get the article.  Maybe I'm just super tired but to me it just seemed like 2500+ words to say "This is all just conjecture but the budget was probably too big and the management style didn't work for a team that size.  I knew all this months ago but didn't say anything".

Am I missing something totally here?

[MysterD]

Ken Levine just posted that they have around 50 studios & 112 recruiters showing-up for Irrational recruiter day - to try and recruit former Irrational dev's to other studios.

They got so many showing-up, they're moving it from their studio to a ballroom at an external site.

Link:
https://www.facebook.com/ken.levine.9/posts/10202483601190245

   

    Ken Levine

    I don't know who the hell they're sleeping with, but the Irrational Team has so far attracted 50 studio/publishers sending 112 recruiters. We’re decided our office is too small for this and we’re going to be moving we’re moving the external recruiting day on wed. feb 26th from our office to a ballroom to a much larger off site location.

    Heads up to pubs turned away because of size constraints, plz re-ping chris.bigelow@2k.com to get onboard ‪#‎irratoinaljobs‬

    -best

    Ken

    List of current attendees is below.

    Amazon Game Studios
    ArenaNet LLC
    Avalanche Studios
    Bethesda Softworks / id Software / zeniMax
    Blizzard Entertainment
    BioWare/EA
    Carbine
    Certain Affinity
    Climax Studios
    Crytek USA and Crytek (global)
    Demiurge
    Digital Extremes
    Fireforge Games
    Gearbox
    GSN Games
    Harmonix Music
    Hasbro
    HBO
    High Voltage Software
    Infinity Ward (activision)
    Insomniac Games
    IOI
    Machine Zone
    Neversoft Entertainment
    Red 5 Studios
    Retro Studios
    Sledgehammer (Activision)
    Sony Computer Entertainment
    Sucker Punch Productions
    Tenwall Creatives
    Treyarch (activision)
    Trion Worlds
    Trip Wire Interactive
    Turbine Inc.
    Turtle Rock
    Twistory Studios
    Ubisoft Montreal
    Ubisoft Toronto
    Ubisoft Quebec
    Vicarous Visions
    Wargaming West
    Williams Interactive / WMS Gaming
    Windward Mark Interactive
    Xamarin Inc

 

[Pugnate]

I didn't really get the article.  Maybe I'm just super tired but to me it just seemed like 2500+ words to say "This is all just conjecture but the budget was probably too big and the management style didn't work for a team that size.  I knew all this months ago but didn't say anything".

Am I missing something totally here?

I know right?

[MysterD]

Polygon -> Final years of Irrational Games Boston.
Eurogamer -> Interview w/ Ken Levine.