Following the rather sudden and surprising closure of Bioshock developer Irrational Games, a chunk of the former Irrational staff (aside from the 15 employees that were chosen by Ken Levine to go with him to Take-Two) are utilising Twitter to find themselves new work with the hashtag #IrrationalJobs .
For those who don’t know what happened, Ken Levine, the co-founder of Irrational Games, announced late yesterday that he would be “winding down” the company in favor of a new venture with Take-Two, the parent company that Levine states believed in and supported the BioShock series. Whilst 15 chosen staff will be accompanying him to Take-Two, there will be support for those being laid off, so they can sort out their portfolios and meet with other developers about potential job opportunities.
Several members of the BioShock Infinite team have tweeted their professions and skills under the hashtag #IrrationalJobs , hoping that their tweets can be easily found and noticed by developers who are hiring. According to Develop , developers with open vacancies are also utilizing #IrrationalJobs to call for specific skills that are needed at their companies. Studios that are currently hiring, among others, include Sony Santa Monica ( God of War and the upcoming The Order: 1886 ), Guerrilla Games ( Killzone ), Raven Software ( Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Academy ), Retro Studios (2002’s Metroid Prime ) and Avalanche Software ( Disney Infinity ).
What’s more, the former Irrational employees have put up two Google documents containing information about developers and their respective career pages and contact information for said former employees. The latter document also includes contact information for former Turbine ( The Lord of the Rings Online ) employees following its layoffs.
My thoughts go out to the former Irrational staff, and I hope they find work again soon!