There’s been quite a stir going on at Irrational Games with the production of Bioshock: Infinite, one of the most anticipated games of next year. It would seem that two of Irrational Games’ leads have departed. There also has been some of the game’s multiplayer content cut out.

The two leads that departed were Art director Nate Wells and Director of Product Development Tim Gerritsen. Nate Wells’ departure comes as a significant blow, as he is reported to have been one of the few senior members left on the development team, having been at Irrational Games for over ten years. These two departures are preceded by quite a few others over the past year. Some of the other team members who left include producer Joe Faulstick, senior level designer Steve Gaynor, design director Jeff McGann, and many others.

Ken Levine, the creative director, had this to say regarding development of the game after Nate and Tim’s leave:

As far as the team itself, the lead artist, the art director, the creative director, the lead effects artist, the senior sound guy, the lead programer and the lead AI programmer from BioShock 1 are all on BioShock Infinite. I don’t think there’s a single senior BioShock team member that isn’t here, which I think is amazing and a testament to their commitment to the studio. And there are a ton of amazing people who weren’t on BioShock 1 that are on BioShock Infinite.

It has been confirmed that Rod Fergusson, director of production at Epic Games, has been brought on board to take over Tim Gerritsen’s position. Irrational Games also has help from Jordan Thomas, an employee from 2K Marin who has worked on the past two Bioshock games.

Another bit of upsetting news (possibly) is the recent cancelling of two multiplayer modes. The reason behind the cancellations of these two modes was the fact that Irrational Games felt like they wouldn’t have worked in the final product.

One of the modes played out like a tower defense game where players would be miniaturized and have to fight off squads of enemy toys. The other was a “Spec Ops” mode which is said to have played out similar to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare co-op modes.

Personally, I’m not too worried about the loss of the multiplayer. Even though I have yet to experience the Bioshock games (don’t stone me!), I know very well that the first game did extremely well despite having just single-player mode. As far as the recent news of senior employees heading out the door, us gamers will just have to see what becomes of the final product next year. I was quite amazed at the demo shown last year at E3 and if that’s unfinished, I personally think the final product will turn out better than expected still.

What do you all think of this recent news flash? Do you think Irrational has hit a brick wall? Do you think they’ll still pull through despite losing most of their senior employees? Comment down below.

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