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27-870: Private Division is an American video game publisher based in New York City . The company was founded by Take-Two Interactive and announced in December 2017. Private Division funds and publishes indie games developed by small to mid-sized studios. This includes taking over Kerbal Space Program publishing and releasing titles from Obsidian Entertainment , Panache Digital Games , and V1 Interactive. In addition to offices within Take-Two's headquarters in New York City, Private Division also has offices in Seattle , Las Vegas and Munich . Private Division

54-399: A video game developer (the publisher calls this external development ) and sometimes by paying an internal staff of developers called a studio . The large video game publishers also distribute the games they publish, while some smaller publishers instead hire distribution companies (or larger video game publishers) to distribute the games they publish. Other functions usually performed by

81-730: A group, they have had mixed performance. At present, Electronic Arts is the only third-party publisher present in the S&;P 500 diversified list of large U.S. corporations; in April 2010, it entered the Fortune 500 for the first time. Hype over video game publisher stocks has been breathless at two points: Star Theory Games Uber Entertainment was founded by Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor in March 2008 in Bellevue, Washington . They became

108-433: A half years prior to the label's announcement Worosz pitched the idea of Private Division to Take-Two's CEO Strauss Zelnick , who greenlit the creation of the label and they hired Allen Murray in late 2015 to run the production side, begin recruiting developers and build their team and infrastructure. The label aids in the development process and works with the developer to create project timelines and milestones, and will help

135-464: A partnership with Pokémon developer Game Freak for an untitled action-adventure game, codenamed Project Bloom . The game is scheduled to release during Take-Two Interactive 's 2026 fiscal year. During a Nintendo Direct in June, Penny's Big Breakaway was unveiled and subsequently released on February 21, 2024. In April 2024, Take-Two Interactive stated their intent to cut 5% of the workforce by

162-407: A spinout to continue development of their UberNet back-end gaming service. On January 29, 2018 PlayFab was acquired by Microsoft to form Microsoft Azure PlayFab. On October 2, 2014, Uber Entertainment announced a new Kickstarter campaign for a real-time strategy game, Human Resources . The goal was set for $ 1.4 million, though the project was cancelled October 21, 2014 after projections showed

189-429: A wider consumer pool and have access to distribute to a big network. Although they have creative constraints within game development and marketing, they often focus and follow market trends. They have a higher demand to attain commercial success. Examples of AAA video game publishers are Electronic Arts , Ubisoft , and Activision . Indie game publishers are companies that work with independent developers. Their focus

216-576: Is associated with high risk : AAA game publishers produce and create games that are high budget and groundbreaking. They are advanced in technology and forward the boundaries of technology and creativity in the video game world. AAA game publishers often produce popular and blockbuster games. These publishers have the financial resource and means to fund large game development projects. These publishers implement and fund marketing and distribution to guarantee reach and exposure for their games. With their funds to market they are able to advertise and reach

243-611: Is on developing games that promotes creativity and originality. Developers have creative control over their games. These publishers implement intimate collaborations between the publishers and the developers. Often stand out in the video game market due to the more unique genres. Indie game publishers have restrict marketing budgets and have small audience reach and visibility. Examples of Indie video game publishers are Devolver Digital , Annapurna Interactive and Raw Fury . Mobile game publishers produce and specialize in video games on smartphones and tablet devices. They take advantage of

270-502: The Borderlands series). Take-Two formed Private Division as a new publishing label to help smaller and independent studios. The label looks to provide funding and publishing for "triple-I" games such as Ninja Theory 's Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice , those that fell into the middle ground between triple-A games by large studios, and indie games created by relatively new and small indie studios. The formation of Private Division

297-459: The 30 staff had moved to Take-Two, and Kerbal contract was pulled from them by Take-Two. The remaining staff had planned to prepare prototypes and have material ready to present to publishers at the March 2020 Game Developers Conference , but because of the COVID-19 pandemic , the conference and others like it were closed down. Star Theory Games was shut down on March 4, 2020 as a result; some of

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324-606: The Private Division label. In the case of Darkborn , some time in 2018, Private Division and The Outsiders decided to go separate ways, with Private Division stating that they continued to support The Outsiders for several months after the termination of the contract. In February 2020, Take-Two established a yet-named studio within Private Division located at Seattle for development of Kerbal Space Program 2 , later named Intercept Games, with several of Star Theory Games staff, including Jeremy Ables and Nate Simpson, joining

351-479: The closure of Roll7 and Intercept Games. Take-Two would continue to support No Rest for the Wicked , while five other titles were transferred to the new buyer. Video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer . They often finance the development, sometimes by paying

378-780: The company announced a partnership with Wētā Workshop to publish a game in the Middle-Earth franchise. The game was revealed to be Tales of the Shire and is scheduled to release in the second half of 2024. In December, Private Division announced a publishing deal with Bloober Team to release a survival horror game . Private Division would later end up cancelling the publishing deal with Bloober Team in May 2024. In March 2023, an unspecified number of Private Division employees were affected by layoffs as part of parent company Take-Two's effort to save $ 50 million. In May, Private Division announced

405-612: The end of 2024. GamesIndustry.biz reported that this led to a "vast majority" of Private Division's staff across their offices in Seattle, New York, Las Vegas, and Munich being let go in May, including shuttering Roll7 and Intercept Games. IGN would go on to report that Take-Two is planning to shut down Private Division. In November, Take-Two's CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that the company had sold Private Division to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed sum, as to allow Take-Two to focus on AAA and mobile games. The company also affirmed

432-552: The fundraiser would fail to raise the needed capital. On August 18, 2015, Uber Entertainment released Planetary Annihilation: Titans as a stand-alone expansion to Planetary Annihilation . On August 17, 2018, Planetary Annihilation Inc was founded to continue development and publishing of the Planetary Annihilation and Planetary Annihilation: Titans games. At the 2019 Gamescom , Uber Entertainment announced it had changed its name to Star Theory Games, and

459-459: The game unclear. According to Jason Schreier for Bloomberg News , around December 2019, shortly after they negotiated an extension to complete work on the game, Take-Two wanted to acquire Star Theory but Berry and Mavor did not like the terms of the deal, so Take-Two instead established Intercept Games and offered all Star Theory staff a position there, while Berry and Mavor encouraged the staff to stay with Star Theory. By February about twelve of

486-511: The new studio. In July 2020, Private Division announced publishing deals with Moon Studios , League of Geeks and Roll7 for yet-unannounced games. Later, in November 2021, Private Division acquired Roll7. The game with League of Geeks was cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic . In March 2022, Private Division announced publishing deals with four more studios: Die Gute Fabrik , Evening Star, Piccolo Studio and Yellow Brick Games. In August,

513-607: The publish and distribute the games when completed, but does not seek to own the intellectual property of the developers. With the label's formation on December 14, 2017, Take-Two announced four games already in the works to be published under the label: The Outer Worlds from Obsidian Entertainment , Darkborn (originally as working title Project Wight ) from The Outsiders, Disintegration from V1 Interactive, and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey from Panache Digital Games . Additionally, Kerbal Space Program , acquired earlier by Take-Two from Squad , will be re-published under

540-546: The publisher include deciding on and paying for any licenses that are used by the game; paying for localization ; layout, printing, and possibly the writing of the user manual; and the creation of graphic design elements such as the box design. Some large publishers with vertical structure also own publishing subsidiaries (labels). Large publishers also attempt to boost efficiency across all internal and external development teams by providing services such as sound design and code packages for commonly needed functionality. Because

567-471: The publisher often finances development, they usually try to manage development risk along with a staff of producers or project managers to monitor the developer's progress, critique ongoing development, and assist as necessary. Most video games created by an external video game developer are paid for with periodic advances on royalties. These advances are paid when the developer reaches certain stages of development, called milestones . Video game publishing

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594-826: The rights to the series in 2017, helping Squad to publish and meet their commitments to their players before handing over the intellectual property. Private Division opted to bring in Star Theory, a larger team but with similar capabilities, to work in parallel to develop the sequel while assisting Squad with the original game. However, Take-Two announced it had created a new studio within Private Division in February 2020, later named Intercept Games, and had transferred development duties of Kerbal Space Program 2 there; along with this, members of Star Theory, including creative director Nate Simpson and studio head Jeremy Ables, had joined with this new studio, leaving Star Theory's role in

621-486: The studio's president and chief technology officer , respectively. In September 2012, the company successfully ran a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for its real-time strategy title, Planetary Annihilation . The fundraiser produced over US$ 2.2 million in funds. The original retail release was slated for December 2013, but was postponed, with the game expected "to be feature-complete in early 2014." On March 31, 2014, Uber Entertainment announced PlayFab as

648-704: The widespread appeal and rise of mobile gaming. These publishers enhance games for touch based interfaces and devices. They are proficient in designing monetization tactics for mobile platforms. Mobile game publishers have a comprehensive understanding of the mobile gaming market. They have proficiency in strategies for engagement and user acquisition for mobile sites. For mobile gaming there is access through app stores for distribution channels. There are obstacles with monetization due to lack of in-app purchase and free-to-play(F2P) models . Examples of Mobile game publishers are Supercell , King , and Zynga . Numerous video game publishers are traded publicly on stock markets . As

675-630: Was Take-Two Interactive's third publishing label, following Rockstar Games and 2K . Take-Two divested itself from Private Division to an undisclosed buyer in November 2024. Take-Two's prior publishing model has been focused on its two internally-owned labels, Rockstar Games which is used for its action-adventure games like Grand Theft Auto , and its 2K label that includes 2K Games and 2K Sports for other games. All such games are developed principally through internal development studios or from large third-party triple-A studios (such as Firaxis Games with Civilization IV or Gearbox Software for

702-576: Was led by Take-Two's head of corporate development and independent publishing Michael Worosz. Worosz, in evaluating potential games to publish under Take-Two's name, found a number of mid-sized studios founded by developers that had prior triple-A development experience but wanted to create less ambitious games. Worosz learned that these studios struggled with funding, as they did not fit into the types of studios backed by indie game publishers like Devolver Digital , and their projects were too large to be backed through self-funding or crowdfunding . About two and

729-462: Was working with publisher Private Division , a subsidiary of Take-Two , to produce Kerbal Space Program 2 . Creative director Nate Simpson said that the name change was due to their prior name being confused with Uber , the car-share company; Simpson noted that Uber had previously gotten permission from them to use the "Uber" name before, which they had granted. The original Kerbal Space Program had been produced by Squad , but Take-Two acquired

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