2K’s Australian studio, based in Canberra, has undergone more than a few name changes in the past. I pity the fool that has to answer phones in that place. “Hello, Irrational Games/2K Australia/2K Marin/2K Boston, how can I help you?” Take your pick, you’ve got a 25% chance of being right at any given time…
MCV Pacific is reporting that the studio formerly known as Irrational Games/2K Boston/2K Australia/2K Marin is now being given its old name back, and will be known as 2K Australia. The name change is part of another studio switch. Previously the team there were working on the upcoming X-Com reboot, but now they’re helping out Irrational Games on the BioShock Infinite.
Is this good news for a studio that was recently hit with redundancies? We certainly hope so. 2K Australia has worked on some of the best games of this generation, and we’d like to see that trend continue with its work on BioShock Infinite.
Canberra 2K Games studio renamed, working on Bioshock Infinite [MCV]
D.C.
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 9:36 AMWeren’t, uh, 2K Australia taking the lead in X-Com, does that mean that’s shifted to 2K Marin now?
GentlemanJ
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:04 AMI’d say it is likely that they may have been struggling with getting Bioshock Infinite on schedule for release so they get 2kMarin (or what ever it is called now) to help them work on it so it is finished on time, delay the game that is not expected to make as much and finish it later when both studios are free.
Badger
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 11:45 AMI don’t know anything specific about this situation, but there’s nothing in the “report” that indicates that XCOM has been delayed at all.
On a well organised project you don’t need the entire team for the last few months. The majority of the implementation should be done, you just need a smaller team to do final tweaks. Programmers in particular should be aiming to run out of things to do towards the end.
DCB
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 1:08 PMThe X-Com delay was already announced a few weeks back.
GooberMan
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 2:06 PM…have you ever actually made and/or shipped a game? Programmers are the only ones guaranteed to be working up to the end thanks to all the bugs that crop up.
Badger
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 3:45 PMYup. Worked on 2 shipped and 1 cancelled.
If you have your entire team working on the game at the very end then something has gone wrong. By the time you get to Beta pretty much everything should be solid and you just keep a few team members on to polish out the remaining bugs.
I realise that it rarely happens that way, but it should be the aim. Every now and then a project gets it right.
I hadn’t seen the XCOM delay announcement, though.
red
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 4:13 PM“Programmers are the only ones guaranteed to be working up to the end thanks to all the bugs that crop up”
cos you know, there is no guarantee that QA department won’t be on it till it ships…
Aidan
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 9:36 AM25%, surely? With four names? :P
Interesting, I’d heard they were working on the X-Com reboot, but it’s nice to see they’re getting a AAA project (or at least helping on one).
At the very least it’s good experience for some of the local industry.
Mark Serrels
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:16 AMI initially had three names, forgot about the fourth, added it, then forgot I put a number on it!
Aidan
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 11:06 AMCan see why it’d be confusing. So many names!
WiseHacker
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 9:47 AMI swear, 2K seem to allocate title flags to studios depending on the projects they are working on.
$5 says when BioShock: Infinite is finished the name changes again.
James Mac
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 9:59 AMSo… X-Com has been postponed?
red
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:00 AMnow the redundancies makes sense
Chuloopa
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:02 AMCould have been worse
“We are nor changing our name to ‘the game artists formally known as 2k’. Also, next year we plan on changing our name to just a symbol.”
PuppyLicks
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:25 AMAnd then a week from that we’ll all be fired.
Sorry I’ll take my cynic hat off now :)
El Kapitan
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 11:25 AMThey will now be known as ‘Pepsi Presents: 2K Australia’
PuppyLicks
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 11:53 AMI hear Mark’s twitter account was almost called something similar, but then he got off the junk.
Badger
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:05 AMIrrational Canberra were working on XCOM way back when they were still finishing off the original Bioshock.
Given that XCOM is getting released in March, it’s reasonable to assume that they still have a small team workign on polish but are shifting their focus across to Bioshock Infinite.
N3RD1001101
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 9:32 AMYou are 100% spot on there, I had a friend who worked at the studio at the time… Blew me away though when I heard the phrases XCOM and FPS in the same sentence.
D.C.
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 10:07 AMOne thing about Irrational/2K Boston/then Irrational again is they’ve carved a unique idenity. Just go to http://www.irrationalgames.com and it feels like something unique, I have no idea why 2K wanted all the studios to conform to a generic name and logo in the first place.
Luke
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 12:12 PMI suppose because of all the negativity that the XCOM reboot got its announcement and trailers, 2K Marin are letting this one fly under the radar and letting 2K Australia work in Infinite.
Actually… as a big Bioshock fan, i had completely forgotten about this game, it suck they didnt
Luke
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 12:14 PMBLOODY LAPTOP CUT ME OFF WILL YOU!!!
as i was saying it sucks they didnt go back to Rapture, but i suppose its done and by making it in a new location it doesnt make the game stale (even though my impression of Infinite is just Bioshock 1 in a new location)
N3RD1001101
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 2:15 PMNot exactly 2k Australia’s fault about the XCOM reboot… Lets face it people are just bitching and moaning because this time round, its an FPS. No ones really given it a chance. I don’t understand why it is an issue for some people that a storyline has been lifted and implemented in a new genre.
Im just sitting back waiting to see where they take this IP, and wether or not they pull it off.
Kreedz86
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 2:48 PMI hope theyre working on Bioshock Infinite INSTEAD of XCom… cos ive seen XCom screens and videos, and im not impressed with the direction theyre taking this remake.