BioShock Infinite Is in Trouble, Loses Key Developers

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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BioShock Infinite Is in Trouble, Loses Key Developers



Prominent developers at Irrational Games are jumping from the airship of BioShock Infinite.

The first BioShock was by no means an assured success. Ken Levine - head of Irrational Games - said the shooter was not the game we now regard as a classic before the release date was pushed back to 2007. His team needed extra time for polish and refinement, and he said the same thing when 2K Games announced Irrational's follow-up BioShock Infinite would miss its October 2012 release window. The game is still planned for February 2013, but today we learned two top members of the design team have left the studio. Tim Gerritsen, director of product development, and Nate Wells, the art director responsible for the look of the Big Daddies, are no longer employed at Irrational Games, placing the development of BioShock Infinite in danger.

We learned of Wells' and Gerriten's departures through some investigating into their social networks, not through any official announcement. According to Gamasutra, Wells updated his Twitter bio to read "New Job ... Details to follow" earlier today, but has since revised it to be blank. Gerritsen's LinkedIn page notes that his employment at Irrational Games ended in August 2012. Well's LinkedIn page says that his Irrational Games tenure is in the past.

There's been no official word on whether these departures will affect the release date for BioShock Infinite, but it certainly can't be good news.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/175574/Two_top_Bioshock_Infinite_team_members_leave_Irrational.php]

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RaikuFA

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Jun 12, 2009
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Good luck hiring new people.

Oh yeah, you won't cause anyone who wants to has had to have worked on a game that has a Metascore of 85 or higher.
 

ThriKreen

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Eh, not much in the way of news, if the game is scheduled for a Feb 2013 release, it should be in lockdown at this point or close to it. Polish and bug fixing til Nov/Dec, then console certification, and expect a gold announcement end of January. Probably some DLC content creation in this stage too.

Losing those two roles isn't that big an impact, as art direction is already set and done at this point, as is development. Chances are they took the opportunity to leave at this point when the workload has lessened.
 

BrotherRool

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I don't know if the 'in trouble' bit isn't sensationalism. I mean for the evidence you have they could have been let go because they aren't needed, or because they were replaced or whatever. Maybe the tweaking was the job of the second lead art director. And surely a product manager isn;t vital?
 

Leemaster777

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ThriKreen said:
Eh, not much in the way of news, if the game is scheduled for a Feb 2013 release, it should be in lockdown at this point or close to it. Polish and bug fixing til Nov/Dec, then console certification, and expect a gold announcement end of January. Probably some DLC content creation in this stage too.

Losing those two roles isn't that big an impact, as art direction is already set and done at this point, as is development. Chances are they took the opportunity to leave at this point when the workload has lessened.
Exactly what I was thinking. I'm sure this won't affect the overall quality of the game. Sad to see two talented people leave Irrational, but then again, we don't know what the circumstances are.
 

Monshroud

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Jul 29, 2009
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I don't know if I would say the game is in trouble. It could be that those people moved on to other pursuits after finishing their portion of the project.

Maybe they even had a falling out, but since the last delay was said to be to put some finishing touches on the game, I doubt it is the end of the world.
 

mindlesspuppet

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Jun 16, 2004
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So much sensationalism in this article. As others said at this point in time the loss of these two staffs members will have little to no impact on the game. In fact it could be possible that they left because their work at Irrational was done. The gaming industry is notorious for employees not staying with studios for a long period of time, instead they opt to jump to different studios in hopes of advancement.
 

Stevepinto3

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Jun 4, 2009
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This might be overblown, but still, it doesn't look good when top developers are leaving a game before it's finished, especially when one of them is notable for designing the Big Daddies.
 

K4RN4GE911

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Apr 27, 2010
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DVS BSTrD said:
Well it would seems like they wouldn't really need anymore art direction at this point in development, Gerritson's departure is bad news though. Still no need to make it out to be worse than it is. It's not like the programmers have all been 'Raptured'
Ah yes, your obligatory pun of the day. Have a cookie.

As for this whole fiasco, I would like to agree with the others on this. I doubt that we're in any real danger of not getting this game on time. Got my calendar marked for February as well, I'm so pumped.
 

faefrost

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Jun 2, 2010
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mindlesspuppet said:
So much sensationalism in this article. As others said at this point in time the loss of these two staffs members will have little to no impact on the game. In fact it could be possible that they left because their work at Irrational was done. The gaming industry is notorious for employees not staying with studios for a long period of time, instead they opt to jump to different studios in hopes of advancement.
Everything you are in the games industry, your entire resume, comes from your inclusion in the end credits of games. Studios routinely leave out even the most prominent people if they are not still on the team the day the game ships. So if two of the higher ups. Particularly one of the core art directors, leaves 6 months before the game ships, what is the message to be taken away?

Now granted this may simply be that these individuals have long had other commitments that they delayed departing for when the Bioshock Infinite release date was pushed back.They may have been prominant enough to have contracts that guarantee their inclusion in any credits, and that allowed them to stay a few extra months, and freely leave when their tasks were done.

But still the departure does raise some eyebrows.

As far as that "must have worked on a game with an 85 Metacritic score" job posting. The takeaway there is they are probably filling one of these two positions. They probably already have someone lined up for it, and that job posting was tailored to them specifically in order to satisfy all of the legal niceties.
 

Durgiun

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Dec 25, 2008
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And not a single shit was given. Call me crazy, but the game's art style seems pretty damn well defined by this point, so the art guy leaving should be no big blow to the development of the game.
The guy for product development... I'm not so sure about, but eh. Fuck it. It's not like it's the end of the world.
 

DjinnFor

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Nov 20, 2009
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ThriKreen said:
Eh, not much in the way of news, if the game is scheduled for a Feb 2013 release, it should be in lockdown at this point or close to it. Polish and bug fixing til Nov/Dec, then console certification, and expect a gold announcement end of January. Probably some DLC content creation in this stage too.

Losing those two roles isn't that big an impact, as art direction is already set and done at this point, as is development. Chances are they took the opportunity to leave at this point when the workload has lessened.
A development studio losing key creative/design directors just before release is like the Chief Development Officer of a major company resigning a month before the company launches a new product line.

I.e. they're probably not satisfied with the result and want to distance themselves from it and get a new job before the shit hits the fan and the game (& their reputation) tanks. That, or they don't like their job... which could be indicative of studio-wide employee dissatisfaction.
 

Treblaine

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Jul 25, 2008
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I've been a bit worried about bioshock Infinite ever since that gloriously impressive trailer... Where it went to halo style 2-weapon pick up. Uuuurggh. Do. Not. Want.

And there was the overall tone of it seems to be so action focused at the expense of depth in combat it didn't seem like the successor to the bioshock I loved. It didn't really show off the breadth of gameplay options more outlined the limitations to show off the pre-set sequences that seemed far more arranged than emergent.
 

Bvenged

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Sep 4, 2009
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DjinnFor said:
ThriKreen said:
Eh, not much in the way of news, if the game is scheduled for a Feb 2013 release, it should be in lockdown at this point or close to it. Polish and bug fixing til Nov/Dec, then console certification, and expect a gold announcement end of January. Probably some DLC content creation in this stage too.

Losing those two roles isn't that big an impact, as art direction is already set and done at this point, as is development. Chances are they took the opportunity to leave at this point when the workload has lessened.
A development studio losing key creative/design directors just before release is like the Chief Development Officer of a major company resigning a month before the company launches a new product line.

I.e. they're probably not satisfied with the result and want to distance themselves from it and get a new job before the shit hits the fan and the game (& their reputation) tanks. That, or they don't like their job... which could be indicative of studio-wide employee dissatisfaction.
That's exactly what's got me worried. I would assume the game is nearly finished now, but if people are quitting...

I loved Bioshock, and was thoroughly looking forward to Infinite, but if the some of the top chaps are dissatisfied with the direction the developer is heading, that's a little disconcerting.