Take-Two's Private Division mid-tier label has announced three new publishing deals with beloved indie studios.
The firm is partnering with Moon Studios of Ori and the Blind Forest fame, as well as OlliOlli studio Roll7 and Armello maker League of Geeks.
“Our partnerships with Moon Studios, League of Geeks, and Roll7 continue to enhance Private Division’s roster with more of the game industry’s best creative talent from around the world,” Private Division EVP and head Michael Worosz (pictured) said.
“We are thrilled to work alongside these experienced developers to provide them with the support needed to propel their creative visions to the next level.”
Ori maker Moon Studio is working on a brand new action RPG.
“Developing the Ori series over the last decade has been a fantastic experience for our team, and we’re thrilled to now be aiming our sights even higher with a new action RPG,” studio founders Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol said.
“We attribute our success to the ‘iterative polish’ process we use at Moon Studios, and we’re continuing that style of development to create a new game that rises above anything we’ve created thus far.”
Roll7 is developing a new "flow state" game for Private Division. This comes in the wake of the studio taking a break after its last title, the 505-published Laser League, proved to be a challenging project. Roll7 had previously said it wanted the game to be the next Rocket League.
"Our titles resonate with players because we strive for super-solid game feel, highly-refined gameplay, and simple but highly masterable mechanics," Roll7 chief creative officer John Ribbins said.
"We're really excited to be working with Private Division on our next title and we can’t wait for players to get their hands on it. We're raising the bar on our creativity and the scope of our ambition to make this next project our best thing yet.”
Meanwhile, League of Geeks is building a new game and IP with the Take-Two-owned label.
“It’s equally important for us to build games with heart that can rally and foster a dedicated community of players, as it is to develop games that are critical, cultural, and commercial successes,” co-founder and director Blake Mizzi said.
“This partnership provides the opportunity for us to grow our studio alongside our ambitions to create something beyond anything we’ve developed before.”
This is the latest set of deals that Private Division has signed. When the venture was first announced at the end of 2017, the label had signed with Obsidian as well as The Outsiders. The former resulted in The Outer Worlds, which launched in October 2019 and exceeded Take-Two's expectations, while the latter never came to be due to the publishing agreement ending.
Private Division has also opened a new studio in Seattle to work on Kerbal Space Program 2. The creation of this outfit has been mired in controversy after it was revealed that Take-Two tried to buy developer Star Theory, but the studio wasn't happy with the terms of the deal. The US publishing giant then reportedly terminated its contract to work on Kerbal Space Program 2 then poached a third of Star Theory's staff to work at Intercept Games.
In the past, Private Division has told PCGamesInsider.biz that there aren't enough companies supporting mid-tier development. The label says that it sees itself as the risk-taker in Take-Two's portfolio.
