It was Irrational Games that directly picked up the torch and worked on continuing the work started at Looking Glass. Still despite the success of System Shock 2 in 1997 and then BioShock (and follow on games) the studio ended up being absorbed by Take Two in February and the shop closed their doors.

The final word from Co-Founder Ken Levine: “I’ll be starting a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two. That is going to mean parting ways with all but about fifteen members of the Irrational team. There’s no great way to lay people off, and our first concern is to make sure that the people who are leaving have as much support as we can give them during this transition."

However, some sharp eyed people have noticed that there are a couple of new job postings on the Irrational Games Website. One of these is a posting for an IT Manager while the other is for a senior programmer. Both of these posting appear to be fairly recent according to GameSpot. We checked out the source code to see if there was anything that would give us a more firm posting time, but other than finding out that they use WordPress there was nothing revealing.

If Irrational Games was to try and make a go of it again they would definitely need both positions filled, but it is also possible that these listing are just a glitch. We noticed that the Twitter Feed API showed a connection error due to expired credentials and there were other smaller anomalies on the site that could indicate a site issue and not new positions being filled. We did actually use the application submission email links asking for more information, but as of this posting have not heard anything back yet. The fact that we did not get an immediate NDR (Non-Delivery Report) is a good sign, but we will need to wait for a real reply to be sure. I am sure I am not the only one that is hoping this is real and that we might see games coming from the Irrational team again.

Tell us your thoughts

There is an Update.
We have recieved an automated response from the email system. Although the recipet of this email is not proof of anytihng, we would not expect to get one unless there was something going on...

"Dear Applicant:

Thank you for your interest! We strive to hire highly qualified and motivated individuals, to create industry-leading games in an exhilarating work environment. We respect each individual's unique contributions to the company, and seek prospective employees with creativity, talent and a natural sense of teamwork. We are currently reviewing submissions, and will contact you should we decide to move forward with your application process. Sincerely, Human Resources Department Irrational Games"