Gamecloud - With the Take Two purchase what will this new development give you in terms of your responsiblities at Irrational?

Ken Levine - For me personally, I can now spend zero time raising money and meeting publishers, paying bills and all that crap and just be a full-time game designer, something I haven't been able to do in a long time. It's not so easy to fit in writing game scripts and doing design while you’re on the road pitching the next game, so I won't miss that much!

Ken Levine - EA recently re-filed for a trademark for a System Shock 3. Is Irrational worried that EA might try to release a third game in the series that Irrational had a hand in and release it around the time of BioShock?

Ken Levine - The more people who make games like Shock 2 and BioShock the merrier as far as I'm concerned. Open-ended coolness is not about any one franchise. System Shock was an extension of a type of game started with the Ultima Underworld series, and was continued with games like Deus Ex, Morrowind and even Grand Theft Auto. What's cool is that now, unlike in 1999 when Shock 2 came out, when I say "open-ended" and "emergent" people don't look at me like I'm on peyote.