Irrational Games are "winding down"; all but 15 staff laid off [edit: Gamasutra - Bioshock Infinite didn't sell enough]

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badgenome said:

Soleron said:
I think he is lying by omission.

Sure, Ken wants to leave. Fine. But Ken does not own Irrational. Take-Two does. By their own admission, Irrational are some of the best devs in the world, and seemingly financially successful.

Why are Take-Two shutting down Irrational?

My hypothesis: Infinite flopped and they can't keep it open.

Yeah, this announcement seems like a face saving gesture. After spending more than half a decade in development, Infinite turns up on PS+ in less than a year. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out what happened here.

I still don't get it. I mean if we trust VGC numbers the game sold 3.34 million copies (without counting PC digital)...

I guess this rumor (although a bit exaggerated) might have been true after all: http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/13584/article/ken-levine-quashes-rumor-bioshock-infinite-cost-200-million/