Some time this year Ken Levine will finally let people know what game he and his studio are working on, the creative visionary behind BioShock told Kotaku today. Not yet. Today, he wanted to discuss the re-renamed Irrational Games.
Game Informer confirms a poorly kept secret – that 2K Boston is returning to its original name, Irrational Games, by which it was known before 2K Games acquired.
Could Take-Two be giving 2K Boston back their unique identity? A trademark application for Irrational Boston seems to point in that direction.
2K Boston, the house behind Bioshock, hits SF and the GDC this week looking for talent to help them with “their biggest and most ambitious project yet.” Dozens of openings are promised.
Not everybody’s firing. 2K Boston’s hiring, and its ad posting tips off that its current big project is an Unreal-based “AAA multiplayer” for Xbox, PS3 and PC.
2K Boston, with help from 2K Australia, made BioShock. And what a great game it was. But they’re not making BioShock 2. Somebody else is. Why somebody else and not 2K Boston? Ken Levine (pictured, emerging from the ruins of Rapture clutching the last remaining…Coke Zero!) explains:
I think for us, we come out of our BioShock coma – from shipping that game, and how hard that was – and then making a determination. What’s next for us, and how aggressive are we going to be?
Yesterday, BioShock on PS3 appeared in the OFLC’s database. Somehow, the static image of a syringe is much more suggestive than a dude violently jabbing himself with a needle and groaning in ecstasy. Good thing there’s no mention of real world drugs, so we can pretend it’s just a game!
Oh, that’s right, it is a game.
As an aside, Digital Extremes gets an “author” credit in the database entry, thanks to its optimisation work.