History Creator / IrrationalGames

In February 2014, Levine announced on the company's website that he would "wind down Irrational Games as you know it" in an effort to focus on smaller, narratively driven games distributed digitally under the Take Two umbrella. This process entailed laying off most of the company and putting together a much leaner team of developers and was finalized in early 2017, with the founding of Creator/GhostStoryGames, a team of roughly two dozen developers led by Levine. As of that moment, Irrational Games has been effectively defunct. The first game from Ghost Story will be the first person shooter ''VideoGame/{{Judas}}''.

* ''VideoGame/{{SWAT 4}}'' (2005) -- The fourth installment of {{Creator/Sierra}}'s tactical shooter series.

** ForWantOfANail: Had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_%28video_game%29 an adventure game based on]] ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' not been cancelled by Viacom when Creator/LookingGlassStudios was developing it in the mid 1990s, Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey and Rob Fermier might not have left the studio to found Irrational Games.

Their website can be found [[http://irrationalgames.com/ here]]. They also have a podcast, called ''[[http://irrationalgames.com/insider/irrational-behavior/ Irrational Behavior]]''.

In February 2014, Levine announced on the company's website that he would "wind down Irrational Games as you know it" in an effort to focus on smaller, narratively driven games distributed digitally under the Take Two umbrella. This process entailed laying off most of the company and putting together a much leaner team of developers and was finalized in early 2017, with the founding of Creator/GhostStoryGames, a team of roughly two dozen developers led by Levine. As of that moment, Irrational Games has been effectively defunct.

Irrational Games was founded in 1997 in Quincy, Massachusets by Ken Levine and several of his co-workers, who previously worked at Creator/LookingGlassStudios. Remaining on good terms with their former employers, Irrational and Looking Glass exchanged their employees quite frequently, and would co-develop several projects (until LGS' closure in the spring of 2000). Over the years, Irrational Games have published a number of critically acclaimed and commercially succesful games - particularly ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', ''VideoGame/{{SWAT 4}}'' and the ''VideoGame/BioShock'' series (a {{spiritual successor}} to the original ''VideoGame/SystemShock''). In the early 2000s, the company opened up an Australian studio in Canberra.

Not to be confused with ''Creator/InsomniacGames''.

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'' (1999) -- Due to this being a collaboration with Creator/LookingGlassStudios, the game even uses the same basic engine as the first two ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' games.

** ''VideoGame/SystemShock II'' was originally suppossed to feature a level set outside the ship, in the vacuum of space. It proved technically too demanding for the Dark Engine and the idea was eventually droped.

Irrational Games was founded in 1997 in Quincy, Massachusets by Ken Levine and several of his co-workers, who previously worked at Creator/LookingGlassStudios. Remaining on good terms with their former employers, Irrational and Looking Glass exchanged their employees quite frequently, and would co-develop several projects (until LGS' closure in the spring of 2000). Over the years, Irrational Games have published a number of critically acclaimed and commercially succesful games - particularly the famous second installment of the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' series, ''VideoGame/{{SWAT 4}}'' and the ''VideoGame/BioShock'' series (a {{spiritual successor}} to the original ''VideoGame/SystemShock''). In the early 2000s, the company opened up an Australian studio in Canberra.

Irrational Games was founded in 1997 in Quincy, Massachusets by Ken Levine and several of his co-workers who have previously worked in other fields of the gaming industry. In the early years, Irrational was in many ways the sister company of Creator/LookingGlassStudios. They even exchanged their employees quite frequently and co-developed several projects (until LGS' closure in the spring of 2000). Over the years, Irrational Games have published a number of critically acclaimed and commercially succesful games - particularly the famous second installment of the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' series, ''VideoGame/{{SWAT 4}}'' and the ''VideoGame/BioShock'' series (a {{spiritual successor}} to the original ''VideoGame/SystemShock''). In the early 2000s, the company opened up an Australian studio in Canberra.

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'' - Due to this being a collaboration with Creator/LookingGlassStudios, the game even uses the same basic engine as the first two ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' games.
* The ''VideoGame/FreedomForce'' series
* ''[[{{VideoGame/TribesVengeance}} Tribes: Vengeance]]'' -- A prequel to the ''{{VideoGame/Tribes}}'' series & sequel to the ''{{VideoGame/Starsiege}}'' series.
* ''VideoGame/{{SWAT 4}}'' - The fourth installment of {{Creator/Sierra}}'s tactical shooter series.
* The ''VideoGame/BioShock'' series

* SophisticatedAsHell: The below original pitch for Bioshock lists "scare the hell out of people" as one of the primary objectives. This is the only instance of swearing in the document, which is otherwise extremely professional.

** ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' had gone through a lot of different concepts. WordOfGod even noted that the team had to cut "five or six games" worth of material from the final product.

In February 2014, Levine announced on the company's website that he would "wind down Irrational Games as you know it" in an effort to focus on smaller, narratively driven games distributed digitally under the Take Two umbrella. This process entailed laying off most of the company and putting together a much leaner team of developers and was finalized in early 2017, with the founding of Ghost Story Games, a team of roughly two dozen developers led by Levine. As of that moment, Irrational Games has been effectively defunct.

In February 2014, Levine announced on the company's website that he would "wind down Irrational Games as you know it" in an effort to focus on smaller, narratively driven games distributed digitally under the Take Two umbrella. That will entail eventually laying off most of the company and putting together a much leaner team of developers.

* ''VideoGame/{{SWAT 4}}'' - The fourth installment of {{Sierra}}'s tactical shooter series.

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: Irrational are well-known for their thoroughly in-depth gameplay mechanics that account for a lot of different situations the player can find himself in.

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock II'' - Due to this being a collaboration with Creator/LookingGlassStudios, the game even uses the same basic engine as the first two ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' games.

[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/IrrationalGames_new_logo_9406.jpg]]