"Seventeen years is a long time to do any job, even the best one," Levine wrote. "And working with the incredible team at Irrational Games is indeed the best job I’ve ever had. While I'm deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together, my passion has turned to making a different kind of game than we’ve done before. "To meet the challenge ahead, I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers," he continued. "In many ways, it will be a return to how we started: a small team making games for the core gaming audience." IMHO this kind of corporatespeak stuff is usually reserved for chapter 11 or the kind of bullshit golden parachute CEOs say after selling their stock, but BI sold well, not like COD or GTA but at least not like Shenmue, so my guess is that 2K (which owns IG) was expecting way more sales and is not willing to bankroll another highend AAA Bioshock game so now Levine is being moved to smaller projects maybe for mobile or web. The "narrative" part reminds me of Telltale, so who knows maybe their next game will be a point&click As for Bioshock, its in the loving hands of 2K's internal studios, you know the guys who made Bioshock 2...
I'd love to see a Bioshock point & click, considering the atmosphere and environment in Infinite are great, but the gameplay is the embodiment of "meh".
This is a dark warning for those wanting a career in the game industry. One minute your working for a studio that's putting out all 10s review blockbuster complete with standees at your local gamestop, the next day shut down.
He just laid off 150-200 people. Thats the designers, all the people who implemented the levels of the game, animation etc. He only kept the top execs. Sure Ken Levine isn't going anywhere but what about those hard working game programmers who thought they were working at a big studio with hopefully some job security? His next game better be something amazing because who would want to play something from this guy who doesn't take care of his own people in the wost possible way.
