A weblog publish from an nameless former Irrational Games worker paints a reasonably bleak image.
A story from an alleged ex-Irrational Games and 2K dev claims that 2K made a string of dangerous choices that result in the closure of 2K Australia, and the creation of various unsuccessful IPs that resulted in job losses for the studios assigned to them.
According to the nameless dev, issues began heading south with the event of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and after the sport carried out poorly, the blame was apparently apportioned to 2K Marin they usually have been closed in consequence.
After growing Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, which additionally had a lukewarm reception, 2K Australia was shut down, with 2K citing development costs as a problem.
“The Borderlands Pre-Sequel was developed with a skeleton workforce of 40 individuals at 2K Australia in simply 18 months, and went on to promote 1.7 million models, plus important DLC gross sales. [2K’s official reason for closing the studio was that it was] ‘no longer economical for 2K to run game development operations in Australia’. You imply not economical to run a workforce of 40 builders paid considerably lower than their American counterparts, who simply bought 1.7 million models after an 18 month manufacturing cycle? That makes exactly zero sense, however we have been informed to not fear about it ‘because developers just don’t perceive how the video games enterprise works.’
“2K HQ was very eager on relocating employees to the dearer Novato workplace so as to add to their 150+ particular person sturdy ‘Hanger 13’ studio,” the publish continues.
“Hanger 13 spent many years and many 10s of millions of dollars creating ‘Mafia III’ which has recently tanked in reviews and has no hope of ever making its money back (it needs to sell ~8 million full price units to make up for its expenses, it has so far sold well under 1 million units).”
Reviews of the title have erred on the average side and the sport has picked up a status for awful, hilarious bugs.
“[XCOM tanked because it was] the only title where 2K HQ felt obliged to get their hands dirty with the development. They turned the product around several times for reboots, and completely took creative control out of the hands of the developers…Perhaps this is why Mafia III and Evolve also lost so much money. 2K HQ doesn’t seem to be afraid to try out their artistic streak — even if it costs the shareholders hundreds of millions of dollars, costs the jobs of hundreds of developers, and costs the reputation of 2K as an employer.”
The publish is a reasonably scathing account of the goings-on at 2K over the past ten years, however the authenticity has been known as into query by Bioshock Infinite’s stage designer Steve Lee who tweeted “Discussion and observations among many ex-Irrationals indicate this is very very likely to be fake, fyi.”
Meanwhile, 3D Realms founder and Duke Nukem creator George Broussard shared the publish on his Twitter account, saying, “2K is a really shitty company. Someday I will write up how evil they were to us.”
It’s an extended learn and the author actually sounds hacked off to say the least, however so long as they continue to be nameless it’s best to keep skeptical.
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