Last week marked another landmark event in the ever-changing games industry. Irrational Games founder, Ken Levine announced on his twitter account that the Boston based studio responsible for the critically and commercially acclaimed Bioshock franchise would be “winding down” operations, with Levine personally taking in only around fifteen of the studios employees to form a new studio focusing on smaller, indie titles. The fact that at least 200 people were laid off seemingly so that Levine can make a new personal venture in game design has rightfully ruffled some feathers, however there is certainly more to this story than the public is being told, and is certainly indicative of an oft-discussed crisis the games industry is steering towards.
Bioshock Infinite, the last game released by Irrational last March, was critically well received, and was the best-selling game of March 2013, moving over 878,000 copies. While that’s all nice, the project did however cost a reported $200 million to develop, and Levine publicly denied this claim. However, the budget is still believed to have been well over the $100 million range. When a video game costs $60 in the U.S., this means Infinite would have had to make above Call of Duty numbers in units sold (for those lacking perspective, the Call of Duty franchise is the best-selling entertainment property of all time). While I gladly paid $60 up front launch week for Infinite, that is surely not the case for everyone, and speaks to why the AAA (or blockbuster) game development business model is quickly dying out.
It’s an interesting coincidence that the same week the news about Irrational broke, Cliff Bleszinski, former design director at Epic Games and creator of the Gears of War series, told IGN.com in an interview that he would, “Never make another disc-based game for the rest of [his] career.” Proclamations like this are nothing new, however, the fact that such high-profile industry personalities and companies are taking action speaks to a wave of change in the way video games are bought, produced, and marketed.
The old guard method of AAA development simply doesn’t work anymore for eveloper/publishers that aren’t Activision, EA, or Rockstar. As a non-PC gamer who still plays the old-fashioned way with a Playstation 3, even I have to admit going digital-only, with games that span four to eight hours as opposed to 10 plus hour epics, is the more sustainable road for the industry to take. There simply isn’t much room anymore for giant budgets and marketing on a game that is even slightly unproven. The risk for even slight failure is too high, and Irrational Games now serves as a cautionary tale.
This was meant to be a eulogy of sorts for Irrational Games, however, as you can see the topic has slightly gotten away from me. It still stands though, whether they be known as Irrational Games or formerly 2K Boston, great games were made by the studio. If you haven’t played the first Bioshock or Bioshock Infinite (Bioshock 2, while still worth playing, was developed by 2K Marin, not Irrational) yet, immediately do so to pay respects to a great developer.