As news broke that art director Nate Wells, and director of prooduct development, Tim Gerritsen, worries arose that Bioshock Infinite development was getting off track. The two defections are the latest in a string on senior level staffers to quit Irrational during Bioshock Infinite's development.
Speaking to Kotaku, studio head Ken Levine, moved to reassure fans:
"In a company of 200 people you're going to have turnover. We never like to see a guy like Nate leave because he's been here for a long time but it's been 13 years and I think sometimes people want to spread their wings. I'm not going to stop people. We love Nate and I think we all remain friends. After 13 years he sort of finished his work on BioShock Infinite, as you will be able to tell when you see the game again... I think Nate's moving on to something else."
Bioshock's art director Scott Sinclair is now taking over as art director, and Irrational have moved to snap up Rod Fergusson, who served as executive producer on the Gears of War series at Epic Games.
"As far as the team itself, the lead artist, the art director, the creative director, the lead effects artist, the senior sound guy, the lead programer and the lead AI programmer from BioShock 1 are all on BioShock Infinite. I don't think there's a single senior BioShock team member that isn't here, which I think is amazing and a testament to their commitment to the studio. And there are a ton of amazing people who weren't on BioShock 1 that are on BioShock Infinite."
In another twist, Kotaku reports on two cancelled multiplayer modes in Bioshock Infinite (unclear, whether any other multiplayer modes will make it into the game). The first one was described as an "old-timey" arcade game where players would engage toys in what is described as a co-operative tower defence game. This mode was cancelled and focus moved on to creating co-operative Spec Ops missions out of specific levels in the game, those plans were also canned as it did not work out satisfyingly.