BioShock Infinite multiplayer axed following staff departures

Two multiplayer modes have been cut from upcoming first-person action title BioShock Infinite, following news that key staff members have departed from the game’s development team.

A large amount of development went into a pair of co-op modes have now been completely axed from the game, Kotaku reports.

Irrational Games’ director of product development Tim Gerritsen and art director Nate Wells announced that they will be departing the studio yesterday.

Following the reports, BioShock creator Ken Levine reached out to claim the waters and confirm that the game is still on track for a February 2013 release.

“In a company of 200 people you’re going to have turnover,” Levine told Kotaku.

“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.

“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 programmer 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.”

The two modes included a tower-defence style game that reportedly “never worked”, and another type internally known as ‘Spec-Ops’, which played similar to the co-op Modern Warfare mode of the same name, allowing four players to work they’re way though levels from the game’s single-player campaign.

On a related note, former Epic Games’ director of production Rod Fergusson has joined Irrational in an unknown capacity to work on BioShock Infinite.