Irrational Games

Irrational Games was the development company behind System Shock 2, as well as the Bioshock series.

System Shock 2
In 1997, Looking Glass Studios approached Irrational Games with the idea of co-developing a new game. Irrational were fans of the original System Shock and wanted to create a similar game. Originally, the game was to be titled Junction Point and involved the player assassinating a starship commander gone insane.

Due to System Shock being seen by the media as a Doom clone upon release, it undersold. Irrational sought to make Junction Point extremely different from Doom, with RPG elements and a detailed storyline.

After 18 months of development and a budget of $1.7 million, the game was nearing completion. Electronic Arts, the publishers of the original System Shock, suggested to the team that Junction Point should become a sequel to System Shock. Irrational enthusiastically agreed and EA allotted one year for the team to implement story changes.

The game's lead designer Ken Levine decided it would be interesting for S.H.O.D.A.N to ally with the player and then betray them. He believed game characters were too trusting, so he thought SHODAN's betrayal would affect the player. He stated "Sometimes characters are betrayed, but the player never is. I wanted to violate that trust and make the player feel that they, and not [only] the character, were led on and deceived".

System Shock 2 released on August 11th, 1999 to universal acclaim, but mediocre sales.

After System Shock 2
Irrational Games eventually released Bioshock in 2007, a spiritual successor to System Shock 2. It received universal acclaim and strong sales. In 2013, they released Bioshock Infinite, the highly anticipated threequel to Bioshock. It received acclaim from critics, but many players felt it was a disappointment compared to the original.