According to a report published on IGN, Take-Two is planning to sell or shut down its indie publishing label, Private Division. The NYC-based publisher was founded in December 2017 to help bring games from smaller developers to market.
It published games like Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, The Outer Worlds, Disintegration, and Rollerdrome. However, in April, most employees were told they would be laid off as Take-Two is pulling the rug under Private Division. Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games and OlliOlli World developer Roll7 are also on the verge of being shut down.
For now, a skeleton crew remains in place to honor the deals with Moon Studios (for No Rest for the Wicked, which launched just about three months ago on Steam Early Access), Wētā Workshop (for Tales of the Shire, due later this year), and Pokémon developer Game Freak, which is currently working on a new action/adventure IP codenamed Project Bloom. Meanwhile, earlier this week, Private Division backed down from the partnership announced in late 2022 with Bloober Team.
The Polish developer noted in an official report:
Observing the situation on the global gaming market, Bloober Team has taken such a scenario into account and is prepared for potential alternative solutions. As of the date of publication of the current report, the Company continues work on Project C in accordance with the planned production and marketing schedule in the self-publishing model. At the same time, Bloober Team does not rule out the possibility of continuing this production based on cooperation with a new publisher. The current situation of the Company allows maintaining the assumptions of the Strategic Plan adopted by the Company for 2023-2027. This situation may constitute a significant opportunity to increase the potential revenues related to this title.
Private Division clearly isn’t profitable any longer for Take-Two, which is reportedly trying to sell the Kerbal Space Program IP, possibly in a bundle with developer Intercept Games. Moreover, the entire label might be sold to a private equity firm, though the report says a deal hasn’t been reached yet.
