Irrational Games prepares to unveil its mysterious Project Icarus game

Whetting the appetites of gamers who appreciate original games, Irrational Games said it plans to release details of its Project Icarus publicly on Thursday.

The game development studio, which is owned by Take-Two Interactive, is headed by Ken Levine, who won tons of awards for his last major game, BioShock. The latter was one of the best games of 2007.

Levine has been making games for many years, with titles ranging from System Shock 2 to Swat 4. But BioShock captured the hearts of hardcore game fans for its originality. Set in the underwater utopia of Rapture, the game depicts a horror-filled nightmare of what happens when a society goes out of control. It is a first-person shooter game that blends horror, a surreal underwater world, and art deco designs. The game sold millions of copies and Take-Two launched BioShock 2 this year.

But Irrational Games let go of the BioShock franchise and began work on Project Icarus. It’s worth noting because it is coming from one of the most creative game studios in the world today. The Boston-based studio promises to unveil the game to the press tomorrow (under an embargo) and then will release a trailer for the world to see on Thursday.

Levine said in a message on his blog that he wanted everyone to view the trailer before reading anything in the press. “Trust me, there’s a reason. In the coming weeks, we will be releasing a video of the demonstration to the community as well. No promises on the date yet; we’re still figuring that out. You can send me a threatening PM, but it will have no effect other than to hurt my very delicate feelings. See you all then.”

[Note: This story was updated to correct the day of debut.]

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.