Irrational Games RIP

[Neon Ignition]

Levine's already poo poo'd the old budget rumours, personally I wouldn't be surprised if it's a simple case of crossed ambition. Despite making a sequel Irrational clearly had enough free reign to take a turn on Infinites styling and it paid off a lot with even higher sales. He was never keen on Bioshock 2 existing having not been made personally and given the sales of Infinite Take Two probably gave Irrational a heavy lean to move on to Bioshock 4 following the Buried DLC, the alternative for them or having to get someone else on the case anyway, especially if they want a fast enough turn around.

Pure speculation on my part but I wouldn't be surprised if they were put in a Bioshock or Walk Away frame of mind. Bioshock 2 will have proven to Take Two they can find ways of doing the series without them too. Despite intentions, I doubt the story of Rapture is over yet...

[dataDave]

Well if I'm honest I've generally found the Bioshock series overrated so perhaps not such a bad thing. Very for the people whom have lost their jobs, hopefully they'll be swiftly back on their feet.

Overrated, yes. Terrible? Not by a long shot.

Infinite cost over $100m to make? Over five years!? LOL

Where does that money go? Let's be generous and give marketing a $50,000,000 budget (LOLO!)... That leaves the other $50,000,000 for the devs. $10,000,000 a year on average. If you have 250 people working on it (WAY MORE than enough) they could be taking home around $3,400 a month which is slightly more than what I'm earning now, and that's not remembering the interns and gimps willing to work for free just to get their foot in the door.

Someone's taking the piss, somewhere.

[dataDave]

If I had $100m to make a FPS it would be the absolute bollocks.

[teddymeow]

If I had $100m to make a FPS it would be the absolute bollocks.

You should apply for Dragon's Den!!

[Sketcz]

Didn't Levine force his staff to work deplorably long hours in poor conditions just to satisfy his own hubris? I'll go Googling for the article, but the whole thing boiled down something like this:
Levine: "This is my artistic vision, so you ****ers are going to work 80 hours weeks and like it!"

Egomaniacs like that don't deserve to helm studios. He ate humble pie when it was released though.

EDIT:
Actual interview here:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-11-would-the-real-ken-levine-kindly-stand-up

Quote:

I know, I can tell you what this game would be like if we - just do the math, if we'd worked less on the game, it would be that much less good. BioShock Infinite is not a formula game.

The whole interview reeks of: I am like totally in love with myself and what I do, and yeah, I could have my minions work less, and see their family more, but then vision would not be met. Back to work!

If I had $100m to make a FPS it would be the absolute bollocks.

Bollockshock Infinite?

[Guts]

I checked and actually the reports were that Infinite cost $200 million with the marketing budget. I don't believe it did and Levine denied it, but I'm still pretty sure it wasn't cheap to make and it has only sold modest 4 million copies to date, which I'm sure Take-Two weren't happy about when yearly games like Assassin's Creed for example shift 10 million units a year.

[Neon Ignition]

It outsold its predecessors though at a much faster rate and given the change in direction I'd be amazed if Take Two looked at B1 and 2's lifetime sales and expected Infinite to do much more.

[Guts]

I'd be amazed if they didn't expect Infinity to sell a lot more than B1&2 with the amount of hype and build-up the game got during the years from the press.

These are corporate business suits were talking about here, people who were disappointed when the Tomb Raider reboot didn't sell the 15 million copies they expected (but no one else did).

[Sketcz]

I remember when selling 1 million copies meant you were the best game ever.

I miss the cottage industry days.

[Dogg Thang]

I'm playing Infinite at the moment and, while it's obviously not a low budget game, it does not feel like a game that needed a bloated budget over most other games either. It's really pretty but very contained with a vast amount of repeated assets. If it cost into the hundreds of millions, money was wasted somewhere.

[Guts]

I remember when selling 1 million copies meant you were the best game ever.

I miss the cottage industry days.

I read that Irrational had 12 people when they made System Shock 2.

[Guts]

If it cost into the hundreds of millions, money was wasted somewhere.

I'm pretty sure a lot of money WAS wasted with the repeated long delays etc.

[Sketcz]

System Shock 2 is probably my favourite FPS.

Still is. Bought it on GOG recently.

Something I hated about Bioshock (all of them), was how simple everything felt. No inventory, no technical complexity. Just run and gun like Doom or Wolfenstein 3D circa the DOS days.

System Shock 2 is an intellectual's FPS. The only other games that follow that style of complexity are the STALKER games, and stuff like EYE: Divine Cybermancy. Bioshock plays like it was developed for attention starved children. Run, gun, die, revive in a chamber, repeat until you throw up. There was ZERO mechanical depth to it. None whatsoever. For **** sake, every item you pick up is used automatically because there's no inventory. Christ. NO INVENTORY.

[Guts]

Bioshock plays like it was developed for attention starved children. Run, gun, die, revive in a chamber, repeat until you throw up. There was ZERO mechanical depth to it. None whatsoever. For **** sake, every item you pick up is used automatically because there's no inventory. Christ. NO INVENTORY.

I agree with you, I enjoyed Infinite for the setting and the cool story, but the FPS mechanics were mediocre at best and like you said, there was not even any penalty for dying (money was superficial because you don't need upgrades if you have unlimited lives to run around like a headless chicken and hope for the best).

So, maybe this is good news with Levine leaving with 15 people. Maybe they'll make something like System Shock now again.

[Dogg Thang]

I guess the thing with the Bioshocks is that they are really sold on the location and atmosphere. I really enjoy the games and I'm currently enjoying Infinite but the gameplay feels very standard (even a little old school) FPS. It's soaking in the atmosphere that I love. But that said, to the gameplay's credit, it isn't at odds with that setting and atmosphere which is something that happens in other games (a recent much-lauded game with a strong narrative totally lost me due to the disconnect between narrative and actual gameplay).

Oddly enough, in terms of enjoying the FPSing, it is Bioshock 2 that did it best for me out of the three. Bioshock 2 had no illusions that it was anything but a shooter and, for me, that's what made it stronger.

I guess the bottom line for me with the games is that I enjoy playing them. That's a win.