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Irrational Games Changes Name To Ghost Story Games
Irrational Games announced a name change today. The studio best known for BioShock is now going by the name Ghost Story Games. A website launched that detailed more what that means going forward.
After BioShock Infinite and its Burial at Sea DLC wrapped, Irrational Games announced it was winding down, and only a little over a dozen staff members were staying on. Not much was revealed as the company refocused, just that it would focus on narrative-driven and repayable games exclusively designed for digital delivery. Today was a big first step by announcing Ghost Story Games as its new name, which on its official site says was selected because, "Ghost stories are immersive, exciting, and steeped in community. The name reminds us of our mission."
The website confirms Irrational shut down in 2014, but kept the social channels going as a way for the developers to engage with the fan community. Now it's time to move forward. "We are a new team, working on a new game and we’d like our studio name to reflect that," the website states.
Ghost Story Games' mission statement states the following: "Ghost Story was founded by twelve former Irrational Games developers and our mission is simple: to create immersive, story-driven games for people who love games that ask something of them. While we believe our new games will have strong appeal to fans of BioShock, our new focus allows us to craft experiences where the gameplay is as challenging as the stories."
After that, it says the team isn't ready to say any more about its game just yet, but you can learn more about its staff, which includes creative director Ken Levine, art director Shawn Robertson, executive producer Don Roy, and more. Levine did share some of the game's vision with us in one of our recent podcast interviews, which you can find here.
[Source: Ghost Story official site via Irrational Games' Twitter]
Our Take
I was a fan of Irrational, so I'm interested in seeing what this new team can do moving forward. It's great to finally hear an update. The biggest hurdle for the studio is separating itself from BioShock, and maybe the name change was done for that fresh start. Either way, I'm intrigued to hear more about Ghost Story's first project. This feels like we're getting closer to more concrete information in the future.
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