Remember when it looked like Take-Two was shutting down both Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games and Roll7 – the studio behind Rollerdrome and OlliOlli World only for Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick to then say that it “didn’t shutter” those studios? Well, Take-two’s now confirmed those shutterings, as well as the sale of indie publisher Private Division.
Yep, after reports had claimed – based on internal documentation and a notice filed in Washington – that the studios were being closed, they now definitively have been.
A Take-Two spokesperson confirmed as much to GamesIndustry.Biz, which also spoke to Zelnick about the sale of Private Division to a mystery buyer to be revealed “relatively soon”, which was revealed in Take-Two’s latest earnings call. Take-Two did outline that, despite this, it’d still continue to support Moon Studios’ No Rest for the Wicked.
The exec had a crack at explaining why the company elected to sell its indie label, which has published some good things, such as Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds. It’s a “strategic decision” that’ll allow Take-Two to pour more resources into its “core and mobile businesses”, Zelnick said, adding: “We’re really best at these big AAA experiences.” He went on to big up the big IPs that the company has under its umbrella – the likes of GTA, Borderlands and NBA 2K – outlining that “to make sequels to existing beloved franchises as well as to create new hit intellectual properties is our mission”.
So, where did that leave Private Division? Well, while the CEO did say the label “did a great job supporting independent developers” and had plenty of its projects do well, he went on to add that: “the scale of those projects was, candidly, on the smaller side, and we’re in the business of making great big hits.”
It’s a depressing thing to hear the head of a massive games company say, if not a massively surprising one given what 2024’s been like for the industry and how we got here.
It’s ok, though, GTA 6 is still on track to hit its fall 2025 release date, so we can just concentrate on that and pretend we’re not sad about big publishers electing to ditch good studios.
