We reported recently that Irrational Games, who has developed titles like Bioshock, is shutting down for good. This may come to a shock for fans of the series and the press. After all, Bioshock Infinite was rather successful. Though during a recent interview with IGN, Ken Levine comments on how he’s happy to finally have a life of his own.
Developing a video game is no easy task and to have over a hundred employees under your watch just adds to the pressure. Ken Levine has been with Irrational for 17 years and with the company under his watch, it certainly didn’t give Ken a break. During IGN’s interview, it was revealed that Ken Levine really didn’t get much of a break since his time at Irrational Games which lead to a strain of pressure and a lack of a life outside of video game development.
“It wears on you after a while. I’m 47 and the pressure of having 100 or 150 people that you have to keep their plates full of material is a challenging one. I don’t mean that I’m the only one providing material, but at the end of the day, if I don’t show up for a month that causes real problems. So I show up. All the time.”
Now that the studio is closing, Ken Levine can finally relax a bit more. While he isn’t leaving video games for good, Ken Levine will be taking up work with Take-Two Interactive where he will start focusing on digital distribution titles and narrative focus video games.