Irrational Games "as we know it" is shutting down.

I just got sucker punched by the news that the team behind the original Bioshock and my game of the year, is laying off the majority of it's staff and "changing focus." According to Ken Levine himself, the studio is

 “winding down Irrational Games as [we] 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.”

It's sadly not an uncommon occurrence that a developer that makes a big budget AAA game that sells well, gets sh*t canned by their publisher anyway. At least it sounds like Irrational is riding off into the sunset on their own terms. It feels more like Levine is fed up with the multi-million dollar budget environment and wants to go smaller. Rather than 2K being miffed they don't have Call of Duty sales numbers. I'll take solace in that. Infinite really felt like a definite ending for the Bioshock series anyway. Sort of a "just try squeezing a sequel out of this one, I dare you." kind of an ending. I guess I should have seen it coming.

At least I have the next Fallout to look forward to!*




* Wait, what?! God... DAMNIT Bethesda!.