Take-Two’s Strategic Sale of Private Division Signals New Direction

According to a report by GamesIndustry.biz, Take-Two Interactive has officially sold its indie publishing label, Private Division, to an undisclosed buyer. This sale includes nearly all of Private Division’s live and unreleased games, although No Rest for the Wicked, the action RPG that launched in early access this year, will remain under Take-Two’s continued support. According to a spokesperson, this sale is part of a strategic shift aimed at focusing on Take-Two’s core and mobile businesses.

While Private Division saw successes like critically-acclaimed titles like The Outer Worlds and Hades, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick explained that despite these wins, the label’s titles did not match the scale of Take-Two’s core intellectual properties. He emphasized that Take-Two aims to produce “top-ten hits” in the marketplace, contrasting the smaller scale of many Private Division projects.

We’re really best at these big AAA experiences. The team at Private Division did a great job supporting independent developers, but the scale of those projects was on the smaller side. We’re in the business of making great big hits. – Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick

The sale follows a period of restructuring, which included the closure of key studios such as Intercept Games and Roll7. While the identity of the new buyer remains confidential, there had been prior reports of interest from a private equity firm. The buyer will now inherit titles such as The Lord of the Rings: Tales of the Shire and Project Bloom but will not acquire the rights to No Rest for the Wicked.

This decision marks a significant shift in Take-Two’s approach to independent publishing, as the company now focuses on supporting larger-scale projects moving forward, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz and The Verge.

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