Garnering the achievement/trophy for shocking and unexpected gaming news of the week is this: Irrational Games, the studio behind the excellent Bioshock franchise – and most recently Bioshock Infinite (review) – is changing its focus.

In other words, Irrational Games as we have known it is no more. Its founder, Ken Levine, announced that he intended to start a smaller team within Take-Two that would make “a different kind of game,” namely narrative driven and highly replayable. Levine elaborated that he wanted to make games for a “core gaming audience” and have a more direct relationship with gamers.

While Levine’s vision is still a bit of a mystery, the one downside of it meant that he no longer needed a large team, and thus most of Irrational Games’ staff was let go, with the exception of 15 employees. What does this mean for gamers? Well, likely that the next Bioshock AAA title (if there is one) would not come from Irrational Games in its new state

In a way, the last piece of Bioshock Infinite’s DLC will be the final swan song of the studio as we have known it. On the other side of the coin, it will certainly be interesting to see what games Levine alluded to emerge – and how his vision may affect the kinds of games we play in the future.