Formerly called
|
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Subsidiary | |
Industry | Video game industry |
Fate | Rebranded as Ghost Story Games on February 24, 2017 |
Successor | Ghost Story Games |
Founded | May 5, 1997Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. | in
Founders |
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Headquarters | Westwood, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Number of employees
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15 (2014) |
Parent | 2K Games (2006–2017) |
Website | irrationalgames |
Irrational Studios LLC (doing business as Irrational Games, and formerly named Irrational Games LLC from 1997 to 2007, and 2K Boston between 2007 and 2009) was an American video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier. The studio was acquired by Take-Two Interactive in 2006. The studio was known for its games System Shock 2, Freedom Force, SWAT 4, and most notably two of the games in the BioShock series. Following the release of BioShock Infinite in 2014, Levine opted to significantly restructure the studio from around 90 to 15 employees and focus more on narrative games. In February 2017, the studio announced that it had been rebranded as Ghost Story Games and considered a fresh start from the original Irrational name, though still operating at the same business subsidiary under Take-Two.
Shortly after BioShock was released, rumors arose that many of the staff who had worked on the game were leaving 2K Boston/Australia. In 2007, five members of the 2K Boston team moved to a new 2K Games studio in Novato, California. Soon after, 2K Games announced the formation of 2K Marin in Novato.
In late July 2010, several media outlets reported that a recently created website, whatisicarus.com, was a promotion relating to Irrational Games' unannounced project. The following week, information about the game was again teased, with the trailer confirmed for release on August 12, 2010. This was eventually revealed to be BioShock Infinite.
Before Irrational started development on BioShock Infinite, the studio did preliminary work for the XCOM project that later became The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.