Ah, this was the original story that I was thinking of when I read the article I posted. I agree. Without The Verge link, one would probably think Levine is after perfection or something. But that...
Ah, this was the original story that I was thinking of when I read the article I posted.
I agree. Without The Verge link, one would probably think Levine is after perfection or something. But that Verge article paints a very different picture of someone who is terrible at management and can't keep a closed and limited scope on a project.
If anyone wants a bit more of an eye-opener on the kind of person Ken Levine is, Jason Schrier's Press Reset book is a good read (I mean, it's a good read in general, but that bit about Bioshock Infinite made me realise what kind of person Levine is).
I was surprised to hear that the book supposedly paints the whole Irrational/Ghost Story transition a bit different from how you see it presented in news articles. Supposedly, Take-Two wanted to...
I was surprised to hear that the book supposedly paints the whole Irrational/Ghost Story transition a bit different from how you see it presented in news articles. Supposedly, Take-Two wanted to close Irrational after Bioshock Infinite, no matter what and he negotiated a deal for turning it into a smaller studio to focus on a riskier, low-budget project. So that part makes him look like less of an asshole. But I guess most big "auteur" style game directors have some unpleasant personality traits, it's probably not a great working environment.
I had to re-read Press Reset to make sure I got my story straight, but from the book it seemed that Levine hated having so many people around and not knowing their names (this was around the time...
I had to re-read Press Reset to make sure I got my story straight, but from the book it seemed that Levine hated having so many people around and not knowing their names (this was around the time Bioshock Infinite was being made) and Levine wanted to leave.
Take Two execs were really worried by this as at this point they saw Levine as a "brand" and if he left, they feared their stock would tank. So Levine and the execs negotiated to give Levine a smaller company where he would directly report to T2 execs but in return he would have much greater power in how he could run his company and build his games.
Then eventually Levine gave an announcement that he was winding down Irrational Games and only hiring a very small subset of IG staff to work for his company. Lots of people were not only caught by surprise by the news, but some were pretty surprised they didn't get picked by Levine to go into his new company, despite Levine seemingly being cool with them.
Reading it again, I think they are both at fault - T2 execs are willing to treat staff like cannon fodder (like all videogame execs do - seriously, read the book!) and Levine having his own little group that he can eventually bully to get what he wants (it isn't what I got from Press Reset, but now reading The Verge article and seeing everything about Levine, I think he hated having many people around as there was strength in numbers and more people could shoot down his decisions and he couldn't be personal with his attacks).
This might be damage control. For context:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/3/22865129/ken-levine-ghost-story-games-development-direction-problems
Ah, this was the original story that I was thinking of when I read the article I posted.
I agree. Without The Verge link, one would probably think Levine is after perfection or something. But that Verge article paints a very different picture of someone who is terrible at management and can't keep a closed and limited scope on a project.
If anyone wants a bit more of an eye-opener on the kind of person Ken Levine is, Jason Schrier's Press Reset book is a good read (I mean, it's a good read in general, but that bit about Bioshock Infinite made me realise what kind of person Levine is).
I was surprised to hear that the book supposedly paints the whole Irrational/Ghost Story transition a bit different from how you see it presented in news articles. Supposedly, Take-Two wanted to close Irrational after Bioshock Infinite, no matter what and he negotiated a deal for turning it into a smaller studio to focus on a riskier, low-budget project. So that part makes him look like less of an asshole. But I guess most big "auteur" style game directors have some unpleasant personality traits, it's probably not a great working environment.
I had to re-read Press Reset to make sure I got my story straight, but from the book it seemed that Levine hated having so many people around and not knowing their names (this was around the time Bioshock Infinite was being made) and Levine wanted to leave.
Take Two execs were really worried by this as at this point they saw Levine as a "brand" and if he left, they feared their stock would tank. So Levine and the execs negotiated to give Levine a smaller company where he would directly report to T2 execs but in return he would have much greater power in how he could run his company and build his games.
Then eventually Levine gave an announcement that he was winding down Irrational Games and only hiring a very small subset of IG staff to work for his company. Lots of people were not only caught by surprise by the news, but some were pretty surprised they didn't get picked by Levine to go into his new company, despite Levine seemingly being cool with them.
Reading it again, I think they are both at fault - T2 execs are willing to treat staff like cannon fodder (like all videogame execs do - seriously, read the book!) and Levine having his own little group that he can eventually bully to get what he wants (it isn't what I got from Press Reset, but now reading The Verge article and seeing everything about Levine, I think he hated having many people around as there was strength in numbers and more people could shoot down his decisions and he couldn't be personal with his attacks).
Interesting, thank you for going straight to the source. Maybe I should read that book!