Irrational Games

Lore & Background

Irrational Games was formed in 1997 by Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier, former Looking Glass Studios employees. Their first project was a single-player campaign for FireTeam, but the publisher dropped it. They then worked with Looking Glass on System Shock 2, released in 1999. After that, Chey returned to Australia and Fermier went to Ensemble Studios.

Irrational worked on Deep Cover, a Cold War project inspired by Thief, which was cancelled around 2000. They later worked with Crave Entertainment on The Lost, a third-person action game inspired by Dante's Inferno for PlayStation 2. During development, they initially planned to use the LithTech engine but later switched to the Unreal Engine due to difficulties making the game work on the PlayStation 2. The Lost was cancelled by 2002.

Irrational also developed Freedom Force with Crave, published in 2002 by EA Partners. They then worked with Vivendi Games on Tribes: Vengeance (2004) and SWAT 4 (2005). In 2006, Take-Two acquired Irrational. BioShock was released in 2007 to critical acclaim.

In 2010, the studios reverted to the Irrational name. BioShock Infinite was released in 2013. In February 2014, Levine announced layoffs of all but 15 staff, and Irrational Games was shut down. Levine formed a new studio within Take-Two, later named Ghost Story Games.

Reader's Guide

Irrational Games developed System Shock 2 (1999), Freedom Force (2002), Tribes: Vengeance (2004), SWAT 4 (2005), BioShock (2007), and BioShock Infinite (2013). The Lost was cancelled. The studio was acquired by Take-Two in 2006 and closed in 2014.