Irrational Games gets rational name

It's Irrational Jim, but not as we know it.

What's in a name?

Letters, mostly. In the case of Irrational Games, those letters have changed. From today, the Boston and Canberra studios that make up IG have been rebranded 2K Boston and 2K Australia by publisher/owner 2K Games.

Questions, there are many.

2K acquired Irrational back in January 2006, if you were wondering when the heck that happened. 2K was already primed to distribute the developer's upcoming FPS, BioShock, the spiritual successor to System Shock. Both games are creepy shooters involving mutants and enclosed spaces, so the comparison is apt.

The name change shouldn't signal a shift in direction for the developer, indeed, the communiqué from 2K's HQ quotes an enthusiastic Ken Levine, president of the whole IG shebang.

'We're proud to be part of the 2K Games family and enjoy the new opportunities and artistic freedoms this strengthened relationship provides,' he said.

For us, it's all a bit EA/Ubisoft syndrome. EA Los Angeles anyone? How about Ubisoft Montreal? It's an exercise in brand extension, pure and simple. Not that there's anything really wrong with that, except a hit to the developer's personality.

We're also not sure why it's 2K Australia instead of 2K Canberra. We're assuming it's because the yanks have no idea what 'a Canberra' is.

We've contacted 2K Games here in Oz to get a few questions answered, and as soon as we hear back, we'll let you know. For now, we're curious as to why the 2kaustralia.com site has an ESRB ratings stamp in the place of something directing users to the OFLC, the Australian equivalent.

The current Irrational Games website also features semi-regular news posts. Currently, the new sites – 2kaustralia.com and 2kboston.com – are fairly barren. We've asked 2K if there are plans to keep the developer in contact with the outside world, perhaps with blogs.

UPDATE: According to 2K, the reason for the ESRB stamp instead of an OFLC one on the Australian site is because it's a .com, and hence comes under US regulations.

If that's the case, why not have both? If the two sites are going to be identical, except for a slightly different logo and colouring, why not just have one site?

Sadly it looks like we won't be able to get answers to these questions, and others, for the time being. According to 2K, it's waiting for the dust to settle on the name change before commenting further.