It's all too easy to focus on one particular team member out of a sizeable crew when discussing some games; The Last of Us gets Neil Druckmann, Escape From Monkey Island tends to be Tim Schafer, and Bioshock is easily Ken Levine. These people definitely have a huge impact on their titles, but it's rare they have so much sway as to shake up an entire company in the process. Now you might think after producing a string of some of the most influential and talked-about games in the entire industry with a dedicated crew of people, you'd form something of a bond with them. Although this is pretty much the case with Levine and some of his team, back in February he elected to pick just 15 of them to start a new venture with - citing that "Irrational has grown larger and more successful than we could have conceived". It wasn't without a grace period, as Levine mentioned the studio would remain open for a couple more weeks for the staff to prepare their portfolios, as well as providing them with financial support. Now we don't know about you, but if we were working for a large company, only for the creative head of said company to take off, picking and choosing a select few to accompany him before leaving you behind, we'd be pretty miffed. Levine did his best to quell the general furore around the announcement, and maybe sometimes you just have to do what's best for you, regardless of anything. But still, this makes for a very dividing piece of news that left people wondering what they would do in his position.
