Are you missing Irrational Games? They know, and don’t worry, they haven’t forgotten the fans.
In case you had forgotten, after the release of their last game,Bioshock Infinite Burial at Sea, last November 2014, Ken Levine revealed plans to shut down the studio. In between communications from Ken and 2KGames, it seems what has happened is Ken retained fifteen people to make a new studio, 2K would keep the Irrational name. The rest of the studio was laid off, but presumably given jobs at 2K’s other studios, including Irrational offshoot 2K Marin.
Fast forward to a few days ago, and Irrational shared this tweet with a fan:
@PaavoLuukkonen Thanks for reaching out! We are working on a new game as we speak.We should have more details to come in the future.
— Irrational Games (@IrrationalGames) November 18, 2015
While Irrational has continued to tweet about Bioshock, this may or may not be a new Bioshock game. It is also more likely than not this is an Irrational established by 2K, although whether this is composed in part or completely by previous devs also has yet to be seen. We do know 2K posted job openings months after Ken closed it, so 2K may have quietly kept the studio going after all.
Irrational was founded by three former employees from Looking Glass Studios; Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier. As a relatively smaller, ‘independent’ game studio in the early 2000s, Irrational developed classics like System Shock 2 andFreedom Force before being acquired by 2K in 2006.
What do you hope Irrational has in the works next? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.