Take-Two Interactive, the studio behind popular games such as Grand Theft Auto, Civilization IV, NBA 2k18 and Bioshock 2 announced they are creating a new publishing label, Private Division. The new label will be “comprised of proven games industry veterans that are dedicated to bringing titles from top independent developers to market.” Independent developers continue to hone their skills and share their work with their own fanbases, but collaborating with Private Division could be quite beneficial especially with their plans to make new developer titles “critically and commercially successful on a global scale.”
Take-Two Interactive had been planning Private Division’s launch for a few years already, with the intention of helping independent developers that didn’t quite have a place in their main labels Rockstar Games and 2k. Michael Worosz, head of Independent Publishing at Take-Two states,
We have spent more than two years laying the groundwork for Private Division, building an experienced publishing team and signing projects with some the most respected and talented creative leaders in our industry…” “We see a growing number of independent studios in our industry creating high quality games based on new IP, and our focus is supporting these types of developers and projects, and ultimately bringing incredible experiences to gamers around the world.”
Private Division has already acquired Kerbal Space Program, a fun sandbox style game from independent developer Squad. The title has “sold over two million units to date,” while gaining high ratings on sites such as Steam and Metacritic. A Kerbal Space Program expansion pack is also planned for future release and if it does well Private Division might make the decision to help promote even more content for the game. Private Division will also publish a number of additional titles in the future:
- Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey from Panache Digital Games led by Assassins Creed creator Patrice Désilets
- Unannounced RPG codenamed Project Wight from The Outsiders studio led by ex-DICE developers David Goldfarb and Ben Cousins
- Unannounced RPG from Obsidian Entertainment led by Fall-Out co-creators Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky
- Unannounced sci-fi first-person shooter from Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto’s V1 Interactive studio
Private Division does not plan to release any of its content next year, aside from the Kerbal Space Program: Making History expansion. Additional content may be scheduled for release after March 2019.