94-531: Take Two or Take 2 may refer to: Media [ edit ] Take-Two Interactive , a video game publisher Take Two ( The Price Is Right ) , a segment game on the American TV game show The Price is Right The Princess Diaries: Take Two , a book by Meg Cabot "Take Two", a 2008 upgrade to the Apple TV digital media receiver Take Two (novel) ,
188-553: A 2K brand to differentiate versions (such as ESPN NFL 2K5 ). In 2004, Take-Two had struck a deal with Sega to help publish these titles. Just prior to Take-Two's acquisition, Electronic Arts announced it had secured the exclusive rights to create video games based on the National Football League (NFL) and a fifteen-year branding deal with ESPN , effectively killing Visual Concepts' own NFL title and devaluing their others games. This decision led Sega to abandon
282-536: A US$ 7.5 million fine, along with Brant and other executives paying fines totaling around US$ 6.4 million . Brant, who had remained with the company in the non-executive role of "Vice President of Production", ultimately resigned from the company in October 2006, following a four-month disability leave due to a bad back. In 2007, a separate investigation by the SEC found further issues with Brant and two other executives of
376-617: A motion capture studio in Bethpage, New York . Rockstar Games predominantly publishes games in the action-adventure genre, while racing games also saw success for the company. One of such action-adventure game franchises is Grand Theft Auto , which Rockstar Games took over from BMG Interactive, which published the series' original 1997 entry . The most recent main game in the series, Grand Theft Auto V , has sold over 200 million copies since its release in September 2013, making it
470-668: A "graphic fiction imprint". The imprint, Double Take Comics , was launched in October 2014, but ultimately was not successful and was shuttered in November 2016. Leslie Benzies , former President of Rockstar North, took sabbatical leave from Rockstar on September 1, 2014. In January 2016 it was announced that he had left the company. On April 12, 2016, Benzies started legal action against Rockstar and Take-Two claiming $ 150 million in unpaid royalties. Take-Two had invested into mobile-game developer Scopely in July 2016. On February 1, 2017,
564-616: A Rocket Boy Games in October 2018. Take-Two had also decried their employment of Rockstar North staff as a deceptive tactic to create an affiliation between them. Take-Two and the NBA signed a seven-year, US$ 1.1 billion licensing deal to extend Take-Two's rights to develop the NBA 2K games in January 2019. Analysts estimated that this represented at least 15% of Take-Two's revenue from the sale of NBA 2K games, atypical of other license deals, due to
658-432: A buyer for Take-Two after the investors filed their intent with the SEC. Among the potential buyers were EA, but a deal could not be negotiated before the meeting. The takeover was successfully agreed to by stockholders on March 29, 2007, with Zelnick naming Ben Feder , a partner at ZelnickMedia, as the new CEO. As of July 2015 , Strauss Zelnick is the largest single shareholder by voting power. The company announced
752-470: A deal for Take-Two in the previous year when they were approached by Eibeler, however, with Activision 's acquisition of Vivendi Games in December 2007, EA was looking to resecure itself as one of the top video game publishers with the acquisition of Take-Two. While Take-Two had been discussing the potential of a buyout to a large media company after the shareholder takeover, Zelnick and the board rejected
846-438: A decade, both critically and commercially". Jennifer Kolbe, who started at the front desk of Take-Two, acts as Rockstar Games' head of publishing and oversees all development studios. Simon Ramsey is the company's head of PR and communications. In May 2019, Rockstar Games announced that they were acquiring Dhruva Interactive from Starbreeze Studios for $ 7.9 million , with the sale being finalized later that month and
940-569: A digital replica of their likeness. Take-Two's executive offices and worldwide headquarters are located in New York City. The company runs its European operations from Windsor, Berkshire and its Asian operations from Singapore . As of 2018 , Take-Two's primary business is through two self-owned publishing labels. One label is Rockstar Games , also located in New York City, and is specialized on development and publication of action-adventure games such as Grand Theft Auto . The other label
1034-566: A hidden graphic sex scene that was built into the game, with concerned politicians and consumers stating the scene belied the game's ESRB content rating. Actions taken against Take-Two included an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive advertising, to which Take-Two and Rockstar settled in 2006 on fines for any future violations of content ratings. Take-Two completed a US$ 20.1 million settlement related to class-action lawsuits filed against it in 2005 over
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#17327723500211128-761: A high-priority initiative that will be energized by the addition of Zynga’s leading development, publishing, and live operations teams." Both shareholders of the companies approved the merger on May 19, 2022, and the closing of the transaction took effect on May 23, 2022. In October 2022, Take-Two announced that Playdots would be shut down, with control of Two Dots being transferred to Zynga. In March 2023, Take-Two acquired mobile games subscription service GameClub for an undisclosed sum. That same month, Take-Two had layoffs impacting an unspecified number of employees at publishing label Private Division and 30 employees at Firaxis Games . In March 2024, Take-Two announced that it would acquire The Gearbox Entertainment Company,
1222-431: A major restructuring in mid-2007, following the takeover. With the move of the 2K labels to Novato, the executive, management, distribution and sales areas were evaluated to align these by business discipline rather than geography. Subsequently, the company let go about 5 to 15% of its approximately 2100 employees, closed down some of its European offices and centralizing these in its Geneva location, and looked to get out of
1316-600: A novel by Julia DeVillers and Jennifer Roy Film and television [ edit ] Take Two , a 1988 film starring Frank Stallone Take 2 (film) , a 2017 film directed by Ivan Ho Take Two (TV series) , a 2018 American television series Take 2 , a defunct sister channel to HBO Music [ edit ] Take Two (Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston album) , 1966 Take Two (Robson & Jerome album) , 1996 Take Two , an EP by Brad Corrigan (Braddigan) Take Two , 2001 compilation album by New Riders of
1410-425: A private equity firm to focus on media and interactive entertainment investments. Industry analyst Michael Pachter stated that a takeover would be best for Take-Two, as the present management "completely abdicated any responsibility for the oversight of the options-granting policy. A more responsible board would have committed hari-kari." CEO Paul Eibeler, who had replaced Brant after his resignation, had tried to find
1504-515: A raffle prize, to charity live streams . In 1999, Donovan and Sam Houser cooperated with John Davis to establish the Rockstar Loft club night . Davis had co-founded and been the promoter for Body & Soul, a "no-guestlist, no velvet rope party" held weekly at Tribeca 's Club Vinyl. When Rockstar Games' founder originally arrived in New York City, former DJ Donovan was particularly impressed with Body & Soul, and they became close with
1598-477: A significant setback when the companies succeeded in dismissing 12 out of 18 of his claims, though the court did rule that Benzies "remains entitled to receive certain royalties" as part of his compensation. Sometime in 2018, Take-Two levied a legal warning against Benzies' new company Royal Circus Games, citing the similarity of its acronym (RCG) to Rockstar Games (RSG) as an infringement of intellectual property; due to this, Benzies later renamed his company Build
1692-671: A stake in Take-Two, aligning the studio with its own Alternative Reality Technologies . By July 1995, Take-Two had established its head office in the Silicon Alley area of New York City . Take-Two expanded in its Latrobe location and, in September 1996, took over the second floor of its office building, which had been occupied by the Chestnut Ridge Chapter of the American Red Cross . Around 1996,
1786-414: A year-long development partnership on an undisclosed partnership; following the acquisition, Ruffian became part of Rockstar Games as Rockstar Dundee . Take-Two offered to buyout Codemasters in November 2020 in a deal valued approximately US$ 973 million . While the offer awaited regulatory approval and was expected to be complete by early 2021, both Take-Two and Codemasters' board of directors confirmed
1880-626: Is 2K , headquartered in Novato, California, and is composed of its divisions 2K Games , 2K Sports , and 2K Play . The 2K Sports division handles the development and publication of Take-Two's sports simulation games, such as the NBA 2K series. 2K Play covers family-friendly and children's video games produced by Take-Two's studios. 2K Games handles nearly all other production from Take-Two's internal development studios as well as titles from selected third parties. Rockstar Games Rockstar Games, Inc.
1974-514: Is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive , using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Founding members of the company were Terry Donovan, Gary Foreman, Dan and Sam Houser , and Jamie King, who worked for Take-Two at the time, and of which the Houser brothers were previously executives at BMG Interactive. Sam Houser heads
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#17327723500212068-497: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns three major publishing labels , Rockstar Games , Zynga and 2K , which operate internal game development studios . Take-Two created
2162-651: Is located) and expanded its presence at Hamilton Landing. Due to the various SEC investigations and the Hot Coffee controversy, investors in Take-Two discussed the possibility of taking over the company at its next board meeting in March 2007 and oust the current management. There were also issues with Take-Two failing to make its revenue targets, having lost US$ 163.3 million in 2006. Investors OppenheimerFunds Inc., S.A.C. Capital Management, Tudor Investment Corp., D.E. Shaw Valence Portfolios and ZelnickMedia held 46% of
2256-763: Is the second-largest publicly traded game company in the Americas and Europe after Electronic Arts , with an estimated market cap of US$ 23 billion . Take-Two Interactive was founded by Ryan Ashley Brant, the son of media executive and Interview co-owner Peter Brant . Ryan Brant had attended the Hotchkiss School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania , graduating in May 1992. He began his career in May 1991, working for his father as
2350-411: Is used in most of Rockstar Games's titles for personal computers and consoles , including Red Dead Redemption , Grand Theft Auto IV , Max Payne 3 , Grand Theft Auto V , and Red Dead Redemption 2 . Rockstar Games Social Club is an online gaming service created by Rockstar Games for authentication and multiplayer applications within their games. Most branding relating to Social Club
2444-455: The Hot Coffee mod, as well as to a class-action lawsuit brought by shareholders over the options backdating fraud, in September 2009. A fire had damaged part of the Take-Two headquarters building in New York in 2006. In early January 2007, Take-Two relocated the headquarters for 2K to Novato, California to 65,000 square feet of space at Hamilton Landing, an office park that had repurposed
2538-451: The NBA 2K series in the past. The division was relocated to a new Austin location and rebranded as Visual Concepts Austin to continue support for that series. In June 2021, Take-Two made its largest acquisition to date with the $ 378 million acquisition of Top Eleven developer Nordeus , further expanding its mobile game division, which, as of July 2021, is known as T2 Mobile Games. Take-Two Interactive announced its intent to acquire
2632-688: The Private Division label to support publishing from independent developers , though it sold the label in 2024. The company also formed Ghost Story Games which was a former 2K studio under the name Irrational Games . The company acquired the developers Socialpoint , Playdots and Nordeus to establish itself in the mobile game market. The company also owns 50% of professional esports organization NBA 2K League . Take-Two's combined portfolio includes franchises such as BioShock , Borderlands , Grand Theft Auto , NBA 2K , WWE 2K , and Red Dead among others. As of September 2023, it
2726-559: The S&;P 500 , joining two other major video game publishers EA and Activision Blizzard . Similar to the situation in 2013, Take-Two started buying back around US$ 308 million of its stock (estimated to be about 2.5% of the outstanding stock), predicated on similar expectations that Red Dead Redemption 2 , to be released in October 2018, would similarly boost the company's profits as Grand Theft Auto V had done. On March 29, 2018, Benzies' litigation against Rockstar and Take-Two suffered
2820-509: The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) labor union, of which numerous video game voice actors are members of, would initiate a labor strike against a number of video publishers, including Take Two Interactive, over concerns about lack of A.I. protections related to not only video game actors, but also the use of A.I to replicate an actor’s voice, or create
2914-441: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began examining Take-Two's business records, based on complaints filed from 2001 that Take-Two's earnings did not seem to match figures of game sales reported by NPD Group . The SEC's formal complaint found that the company had purportedly sold products to distributors as a "parking transaction" for a quarter, as to artificially increase their revenues for investors, which it estimated
Take Two - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-401: The chief operating officer of Stewart, Tabori & Chang, a publisher of illustrated books, until August 1993. As Brant wanted to forge his own path, he decided to create a video game publishing company. He stated "I wanted to get into a business where I could raise capital as a younger guy. In technology, people expect you to be a younger person." An initial US$ 1.5 million in funding
3102-711: The ticker symbol TTWO on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The opening price was $ 5.50 , above the expected $ 5 , and on its first day rose to $ 5.75 . From the IPO, the company gained about US$ 6.5 million along with US$ 4 million on venture fund promissory notes. At this time, Peter Brant had been the largest shareholder in Take-Two at 25% owned through Bridgehampton Investors LP, which also had Ryan Brant as general partner . The additional funds allowed Take-Two to acquire GameTek's European operations, its internal Alternative Reality Technologies studio (later renamed Rockstar Toronto), and
3196-467: The Dhruva team merged into Rockstar India . In September 2019, Rockstar Games announced that they had released their own game launcher, a digital distribution , digital rights management , multiplayer and communications service. After having taken an extended break following the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in early 2019, Dan Houser left Rockstar Games on March 11, 2020. The company acquired
3290-507: The Houser brothers and King at BMG Interactive, but left the company when it was acquired by Take-Two Interactive, and joined Capcom 's European operations as managing director in 2003. As of February 2014, Rockstar Games titles have shipped more than 250 million copies, the largest franchise being the Grand Theft Auto series, which alone has shipments of at least 250 million as of November 2016. Grand Theft Auto V shipped
3384-435: The Houser brothers, Donovan and King established Rockstar Games as the "high-end" publishing label of Take-Two. The formation was formally announced on January 22, 1999. In January 2007, Take-Two announced that Donovan, until then managing director for Rockstar Games, had left the company following a four-month leave of absence. He was succeeded by Gary Dale, who became chief operating officer. Dale previously worked with
3478-465: The League are to be partially sponsored by existing NBA teams, so that there would be eSports equivalent teams for each of the thirty professional NBA teams. The inaugural season is planned to launch in May 2018. On May 31, 2017, Take-Two Interactive acquired Kerbal Space Program . Later, Take-Two announced the formation of its Private Division publishing label on December 14, 2017. Private Division
3572-633: The Oceania market. Notably, in August 1998, Take-Two acquired Jack of All Games , an America game distributor, for about US$ 16.8 million . Take-Two subsequently bundled many of its existing and future distribution outlets under the Jack of All Games brand. In 1999, Take-Two acquired DMA Design (ultimately renamed Rockstar North ), and invested into Gathering of Developers and Bungie (eventually transferred over to Microsoft Game Studios ). In September,
3666-563: The Purple Sage and Poco Take Two , a 2010 album by Sezairi Sezali "Take Two" (song) , a 2023 song by BTS Other [ edit ] Take Two, a variant of the board game Scrabble Take 2: The Student's Point of View, an educational organization founded by Karin Muller See also [ edit ] It Takes Two (disambiguation) Take (disambiguation) Take One (disambiguation) Topics referred to by
3760-754: The Rockstar Games logo with individual colors. As of 2018, the company employs more than 2,000 people across all offices. The studios frequently collaborate and were collectively credited as Rockstar Studios in Max Payne 3 , and simply as Rockstar Games in Red Dead Redemption 2 . Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is a game engine developed by the Rockstar San Diego -internal RAGE Technology Group , created to facilitate game development on all platforms since 2006. RAGE
3854-494: The SEC and instead of receiving up to four years in prison, was fined US$ 7.3 million and barred from holding any "control management positions" in a publicly traded company. Brant died of cardiac arrest in March 2019 at the age of 47. Further troubling Take-Two during this period was criticism and legal actions taken against the Hot Coffee mod , a user-made modification to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that unlocked
Take Two - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-576: The Scottish studio Ruffian Games in October 2020, rebranding the studio as Rockstar Dundee. In September 2022, Rockstar was the target of a data breach in which 90 videos from the development of Grand Theft Auto VI were leaked. Rockstar described the leak as a "network intrusion", and noted that it was "extremely disappointed" by the manner in which the game was first demonstrated, but that it did not anticipate long-term effects on development. In August 2023, Rockstar acquired Cfx.re (CitizenFX),
4042-578: The Take-Two executives to move. On March 8, 2018, Zelnick attended a White House meeting held by the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump , along with various other attendees involved with the video game industry, and members of Congress, to discuss video game violence in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting . On March 9, 2018, S&P Global announced the addition of Take-Two Interactive to
4136-466: The acquisition of BMG as to acquire the Grand Theft Auto property, and at the same time, contacted BMG's Sam and Dan Houser (both instrumental to getting Grand Theft Auto to market), Terry Donovan, and Jamie King to found a new label within Take-Two, called Rockstar Games for which to develop more titles like it. Electronic Arts ' (EA) 2008 CEO, John Riccitiello , stated that, with
4230-508: The board by Icahn to resign. The move to buy back shares was seen by analysts of the company's assurance in Grand Theft Auto V , which was released in September 2013. Grand Theft Auto V has since sold nearly 100 million units by 2018, making it one of the most successful video games ever and bringing an estimated US$ 6 billion to Take-Two, increasing its stock value by more than 600%. In December 2013, former Marvel editor-in-chief Bill Jemas announced that he had joined Take-Two to start
4324-424: The club night's team, including Davis and its other founder, DJ François K . Davis had sought to establish further such events, while Donovan and Houser wanted to get publicity for the young Rockstar Games, thus they established Rockstar Loft. According to Donovan, the event was to serve as an alternative those that were overly expensive or had attendees "bulldozed by security". He precluded video game installations at
4418-405: The company (about 10%), based on the company's projections that it would remain profitable over the next several years. As part of this, the company bought back around 12 million shares owned by Carl Icahn , about 11% of the total shares, for about US$ 203 million . Icahn had been seen as favoring selling the company to a buyer. This subsequently led to three board members who had been recommended on
4512-507: The company acquired social and mobile game developer Social Point for about US$ 250 million to enter into the mobile gaming industry. In that same month, Take-Two and the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced a partnership to create the NBA 2K League , a professional eSports league based on the NBA 2K games, and the first eSports league to be managed by a professional sports league. Teams for
4606-722: The company also acquired Triad Distributors and Global Star Software, a video game distributor and publisher, respectively, both founded in 1993 by Craig McGauley and Damian Cristiani and operating out of the same offices in Concord, Ontario , with the same management team. Israeli developer Pixel Broadband Studios was acquired for $ 50.4 million in March 2000, before Take-Two sold it off to Gameplay.com in October that year, receiving £34.1 million in Gameplay.com shares in return. In February 2001, Brant stepped down as CEO of Take-Two to serve as its chairman , being replaced in
4700-501: The company had acquired and absorbed InterOptica, a software publisher owned by Wan Chai and headed by Catherine Winchester (later Heald); the latter became Take-Two's first president . Later that month, Take-Two struck a deal with GameTek that would see the publisher distribute five of Take-Two's games worldwide. Starting with Star Crusader in September 1994, Take-Two found its first major success within games that included full motion video with well-known live actors performing
4794-514: The company was making about US$ 10 million , but Brant wanted to further expand the company, and made its first acquisition of Mission Studios and publishing its JetFighter III game in 1996. Brant decided to secure additional funds for acquisition by taking the company public. The company announced this intent in April 1997, looking to raise $ 8.2 million . The company had its initial public offering (IPO) on April 15, 1997, being listed under
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#17327723500214888-538: The company's stock at this point, and were looking to put ZelnickMedia's Strauss Zelnick as the chairman of the board while ousting long-standing management and board members. Zelnick had previously been president and CEO of BMG's North American division at the time of the sale of BMG Interactive to Take-Two, a move he had been against, believing that BMG could have capitalized on the video game sector more. Following BMG, Zelnick had been COO of 20th Century Fox and CEO of Crystal Dynamics . He founded ZelnickMedia in 2001 as
4982-401: The company. In an industry-wide sweep against options backdating (receiving shares when they are priced high but backdating their ownership to when they were priced low), the SEC had found Brant had received backdating options of over 2.1 million shares, though he had excised all options upon his 2006 resignation. Brant pleaded guilty to falsifying business records, but agreed to co-operate with
5076-632: The deal. However, Take-Two's bid was subsequently trumped by Electronic Arts in December 2020, which offered US$ 1.2 billion ( US$ 7.98 per share), and agreed to acquire Codemasters. Take-Two formally withdrew its offer in January 2021. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia acquired 3.9 million shares of Take-Two, valued at $ 826 million , in February 2021. 2K acquired HB Studios in March 2021, who previously developed PGA Tour 2K21 and The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour under 2K Sports' publishing labels. The acquisition includes
5170-569: The development of Kerbal Space Program 2 . The new studio staff included more than a dozen former members of Star Theory Games who had been working on the title, including Jeremy Ables and Nate Simpson from Star Theory, which had been previously handling the development of the game but outside of Take-Two's structure. Via 2K Sports, Take-Two established a new publishing agreement with the NFL in March 2020 to start republishing NFL games starting in 2021. While EA's Madden series will coexist and remain
5264-522: The distribution market and focusing solely on development and publishing. In 2010, Ben Feder stepped down as CEO, and was replaced by Zelnick, who remains the company's chairman and CEO. In January 2013, while being dissolved, THQ sold the rights of the WWE wrestling games series to Take-Two. Subsequently, 2K Sports has published annual WWE 2K games as part of its lineup. Around 2013, Take-Two began to repurchase about 7.5 million outstanding shares of
5358-448: The distribution market by looking for buyers of Jack of All Games. In mid-February 2008, EA made a US$ 25 -per-share all-cash transaction offer worth around US$ 1.9 billion to the board of Take-Two, subsequently revising it to US$ 26 per share after being rejected and making the offer known to the public. At the time, Take-Two's stock was valued around US$ 10 per share. EA CEO John Riccitiello said that EA had previously considered
5452-438: The establishing of Rockstar, Take-Two effectively invented the "label" corporate structure, which EA followed into in 2008. With the rights to Grand Theft Auto , Take-Two expanded its publication into North America, and the game became Take-Two's first financial success with over 1.5 million copies sold. Take-Two also began taking on distribution capabilities, acquiring various distribution firms such as DirectSoft Australia for
5546-403: The events leading up to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas . Both were bundled with the game's special edition released in 2005. In May 2021, Rockstar Games launched the record label CircoLoco Records in collaboration with Circoloco , an Ibiza -based dance party. The collaboration grew from a friendship between Sam Houser and Circoloco's promoter, Antonio Carbonaro. According to Nick Benedetti,
5640-633: The former hangar structures from the Hamilton Army Airfield . Later that year in September, Take-Two established a partnership with Nickelodeon and launched a new label, 2K Play , designed for publishing of family-friendly titles alongside 2K's 2K Games and 2K Sports sub-labels, absorbing the remaining publishing duties of the Global Star label. In December 2007, Take-Two established 2K Marin (named after Marin County , where Novato
5734-469: The former role by Sumner. Around this time, the company had 658 employees. With Rockstar, Take-Two invested into developments of sequels to Grand Theft Auto , including Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999), and Grand Theft Auto III (2001) along with sequels, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004). By 2003, Take-Two had revenues exceeding US$ 1 billion . In 2004, Take-Two paid US$ 22.3 million to Infogrames for
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#17327723500215828-606: The goalpoint of Rockstar is to have the players really feel what we're trying to do." Houser went on to say "Our games up to now have been different from any genre that existed at the time; we made new genres by ourselves with games like the GTA series. We didn't rely on testimonials in a business textbook to do what we've done. ... If we make the sort of games we want to play, then we believe people are going to buy them." The company has been involved with charitable work ranging from supporting Movember and offering appearances in games as
5922-580: The growing popularity of the series. A then-yet-to-be named studio under the 2K brand in the Silicon Valley region of the San Francisco Bay Area was established by Take-Two in February 2019. The studio is led by Michael Condrey , formerly of Sledgehammer Games and Visceral Games , and was initially working on an unannounced project. A year later, it was announced that the studio would be officially named 31st Union , that it
6016-507: The highest number of units within the series' and the company's history, with over 170 million copies, making it the second best-selling video game of all time . At the 10th British Academy Games Awards in March 2014, Rockstar Games was honored with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award for "creating intricately layered interactive worlds that have kept the company at the forefront of the gaming industry for over
6110-400: The liking of the operator, the caller would receive their entry ticket in the mail. The first Rockstar Loft was held in western Chelsea, Manhattan , on October 30, 1999, with Andi Hanley (a regular of Body & Soul), Bob Sinclar , and Dimitri from Paris as headlining DJs. Thereafter, it was held "every few months", with one happening on February 19, 2000. Later that year, Rockstar Loft
6204-474: The mobile developer Zynga in January 2022, in a cash-and-stock deal with a value of $ 12.7 billion, with Take-Two acquiring all outstanding shares of Zynga at $ 9.86 apiece. The deal was expected to close in June. Take-Two said that the acquisition would help boost its presence in the mobile gaming market, stating "We see tremendous untapped potential to bring Take-Two’s renowned console and PC properties to mobile,
6298-556: The offer expire, as Take-Two continued to call EA's cash offer as inadequate. In September 2008, Take-Two established an outsourcing agreement with Ditan Distribution LLC, at the time owned by Cinram , a Canadian manufacturer of optical media. Through the agreement, Take-Two offloaded all distributing duties from Jack of All Games to Ditan, while establishing the means for Jack of All Games to license and distribute third-party titles. Subsequently, in December 2009, Take-Two sold Jack of All Games to Synnex for about US$ 43 million , leaving
6392-483: The offer, with Zelnick stating "We didn't slam the door, we just said look, the price is not right and the time is wrong". Take-Two offered to discuss the offer after Grand Theft Auto IV 's release on April 29, 2008, which many considered to be the lucrative property that EA desired. An acquisition would have ended EA's main competition in sports video games. EA continued to extend its bid offer throughout 2008, but by September 2008, EA decided to back away and let
6486-606: The official game of the NFL, while 2K's are called "non-simulation football game experiences" to distinguish from EA's games. In August 2020, Take-Two announced it was acquiring mobile game developer Playdots (developer of the mobile games Dots , Two Dots and Dots & Co.) for $ 192 million in cash and stock with the acquisition expected to be completed in Q3 2020. In October 2020, it was announced that Take-Two had acquired Dundee -based Ruffian Games (known for their work on Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Crackdown 3 ) after
6580-529: The other existing internal studios — Indie Built, Venom Games, PopTop Software and Frog City Software, and Take-Two Licensing — within this new structure. After the formation of 2K, Take-Two completed other major acquisitions. Firaxis Games was acquired in November 2005 for around US$ 27 million ; Take-Two had already supported the studio by using their acquisition of the Civilization license to support publishing of Civilization IV . Irrational Games
6674-488: The parent of Gearbox Software from Embracer Group for $ 460 million. As part of the deal, Embracer would retain certain studios and titles that were held under Gearbox Entertainment. The acquisition was completed on June 12, 2024. In April 2024, Take-Two announced it would be laying off 5% of its workforce (579 employees) as part of a cost-reduction program. It also cancelled several unannounced projects. Take-Two shut down Intercept Games two months later. In July 2024,
6768-408: The parts, following the success that Mechadeus had with The Daedalus Encounter which featured Tia Carrere . Take-Two hired Dennis Hopper , among others, to star in parts for Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller (1994), which sold over 300,000 copies over the following year and established profit for the company. This was followed by Ripper (1996), of which US$ 625,000 of its US$ 2.5 million budget
6862-514: The party's manager, Rockstar Games and Circoloco intended to "contribute something new and meaningful" to the dance music scene, which had faced hardships because of the lockdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic . CircoLoco Records' first release, Monday Dreamin' , was released as a series of extended plays starting in June 2021. Outside of its New York City headquarters, Rockstar Games operates nine subsidiary studios. All studios use
6956-562: The previous year, the United Kingdom-based DMA Design and BMG Entertainment had just released Grand Theft Auto , and while it financially performed well but was not a critical success in Europe, it had sparked controversy over the use of violence in video games, with United States Senator Joe Lieberman speaking out strongly against it. Seeing the opportunity to capture attention on the game, Brant had initiated
7050-446: The retail market. In the same year, Take-Two stepped in as the publisher of Monkey Hero . Its developer, Blam!, had been struggling financially after the game's original publisher, BMG Interactive, was shut down by BMG Entertainment (a unit of Bertelsmann ), its parent company. In March 1998, Take-Two acquired all assets of BMG Interactive for 1.85 million shares (16% of Take-Two's common stock ), worth about US$ 14.2 million . In
7144-418: The rights to GameTek's Dark Colony , The Quivering , The Reap , Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune games. The company hired Kelly Sumner, a GameTek executive director, as part of this purchase. Additionally, the company acquired Inventory Management Systems, Creative Alliance Group, and Alliance Inventory Management, three video game distribution companies that helped to extend Take-Two's reach into
7238-617: The rights to the Civilization series . The company had also planned to acquire Vivendi Universal Games for $ 1 billion . In 2005, Take-Two began a host of acquisitions, spending more than US$ 80 million buying game developers. One of its largest acquisitions was for the development studios Visual Concepts and Kush Games from Sega for about US$ 32 million in January 2005. Both studios had been extensively behind several sports simulation games, branded through ESPN , and typically released updated versions each year, using
7332-642: The rights to the PGA Tour games, which have the official endorsement of the PGA Tour itself. Additionally, 2K announced they had secured a contract with Tiger Woods , who had previously been a key figure for Electronic Arts ' PGA Tour series, as an executive director and consultant for future 2K PGA Tour games as well as his likeness for the games. Later that month, 2K acquired the games division of HookBang based in Austin, Texas, which had supported work on
7426-563: The sale having been finalized later that same month. The company had been merged into Rockstar India , which added an additional 320 employees to the studio. In September 2019, Rockstar Games announced that they had released their own game launcher, a digital distribution , digital rights management , multiplayer and communications service. Take-Two established a new, yet-to-be named studio under Private Division in February 2020, later named Intercept Games , located in Seattle to take on
7520-413: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Take Two . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Take_Two&oldid=1200355114 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
7614-684: The second- best-selling video game of all time . Other popular franchises published by Rockstar Games are Red Dead , Midnight Club , Max Payne , and Manhunt . On March 12, 1998, Take-Two Interactive announced its acquisition of the assets of dormant British video game publisher BMG Interactive from BMG Entertainment (a unit of Bertelsmann ). In exchange, Take-Two was to issue 1.85 million shares (around 16%) of its common stock to BMG Entertainment. Through this acquisition, Take-Two obtained several of BMG Interactive's former intellectual properties , including DMA Design 's Grand Theft Auto and Space Station Silicon Valley . The deal
7708-424: The sports-game market. Take-Two acquired these studios and unique branding (including the 2K brand), as well as negotiated for exclusive rights with Major League Baseball for video games. A day after announcing these acquisitions, Take-Two established their 2K publishing label to maintain the 2K brand, moving several planned games from their budget software label, Global Star, to 2K. Take-Two further realigned
7802-493: The studio as president. Since 1999, several companies acquired by or established under Take-Two have become part of Rockstar Games, such as Rockstar Canada (later renamed Rockstar Toronto) becoming the first one in 1999, and Rockstar Dundee the most recent in 2020. All companies organized under Rockstar Games bear the "Rockstar" name and logo. In this context, Rockstar Games is sometimes also referred to as Rockstar New York, Rockstar NY or Rockstar NYC. Rockstar Games also sports
7896-448: The team behind the modding platforms FiveM and RedM for Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 respectively. Michael Unsworth, vice president of writing, departed the company in 2023 after sixteen years. In October 2011, Dan Houser told Famitsu that Rockstar Games was intentionally avoiding developing games in the first-person shooter genre, because "it is in our DNA to avoid doing what other companies are doing ...
7990-404: The venue to focus on the music and highlight the artists. As it could not afford frequent television advertisements , Rockstar Games resorted to guerrilla marketing teams distributing fly posters and stickers. Tickets for Rockstar Loft were originally not sold in advance. Instead, potential guests were to call a phone number and face seven questions regarding their personality. If answered to
8084-410: Was a US$ 60 million fraud. A lawsuit was filed against Take-Two in December 2001, alleging that the company had lied to shareholders. Take-Two initially restated seven quarters of past financial results in February 2002, then five years in January 2004. Brant stepped down as chairman in March, being succeeded by Richard Roedel. After the SEC's issuance of the complaint in 2005, Take-Two agreed to pay
8178-591: Was acquired around January 2006 for about US$ 10 million , including both its Boston and its Canberra studio. At the time Irrational had already established a publishing deal with Take-Two for their upcoming BioShock game. With the deal, Irrational became part of the 2K label. It also acquired PAM Development from the Gaia Capital Group for US$ 11.4 million , giving them access to the Top Spin series of tennis games. However, during this period,
8272-456: Was announced to have closed on March 25. Three BMG Interactive executives— Dan Houser , Sam Houser , and Jamie King—as well as Gary Foreman of BMG Interactive and Terry Donovan of BMG Entertainment's Arista Records record label, subsequently moved to New York City to work for Take-Two Interactive. In a restructuring announced that April, Sam Houser was appointed as Take-Two's "vice president of worldwide product development". In December 1998,
8366-509: Was established to fund and publish games by mid-size independent development studios, such as Kerbal Space Program , and had four planned games from separate studios at its launch. The company completed its move of its New York headquarters from NoHo to more than 61,000 square feet of space in Bryant Park in early 2018. According to Dan Houser , Rockstar Games required to expand in the two companies' shared headquarters and thus asked
8460-607: Was not interested. In 2004, Rockstar Games produced the sports drama film The Football Factory . Based on the book of the same name by John King , the film revolves around organized football hooliganism in the United Kingdom . The company also produced Sunday Driver , a documentary about the Majestics Lowrider Club in Compton, California , and The Introduction , an animated film that details
8554-562: Was opening a second studio in Spain, and that it was focusing on "an ambitious and inspired new IP". On February 7, 2019, Benzies' litigation with Take-Two had officially come to an end. All parties involved in the case successfully executed a confidential settlement, with each agreeing to bear its own costs and expenses, including, without limitation, attorney's fees. In May 2019, Rockstar Games announced that they had acquired Dhruva Interactive from Starbreeze Studios for $ 7.9 million, with
8648-568: Was raised from his family and private investors. Take-Two was incorporated under the Delaware General Corporation Law on September 30, 1993, with Brant (21 years old at the time) as chief executive officer (CEO). The business was launched with assistance from John Antinori and Mark Seremet. Seremet sold his stake in the company in 1998. Early on, Take-Two had a location in Latrobe, Pennsylvania . By June 1994,
8742-515: Was used to hire actors such as Christopher Walken , Karen Allen , and Burgess Meredith . The success of both these games, as well as earlier titles, led to a publishing agreement between Take-Two and Acclaim Entertainment to publish Take-Two's titles, as well as obtaining overseas distribution. Take-Two also secured a license with Sony Computer Entertainment to publish on the PlayStation line of consoles. In February 1995, GameTek acquired
8836-589: Was wound down. Kirk Ewing—a friend of the Houser brothers who had worked with Rockstar Games on State of Emergency —stated that, around the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001, Rockstar Games had been offered $ 5 million for a film based on the Grand Theft Auto franchise. He had received a phone call from a producer in Los Angeles requesting the rights for a film to be directed by Tony Scott of Top Gun and starring rapper Eminem . When he relayed this proposal to Sam Houser, Houser said that he
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