What Are Take-Two Interactive Working On… A Look At Their Studios
Outside of their usual line up of sports games, Take-Two Interactive only released a few unique games in 2024 and one of them had been in early access on mobile for a while.
It as not all good news for the company in 2024, as more than 600 jobs were cut across the year, this follows on from the hundreds let go in 2023.
They did release a statement around their layoffs, you can read it below:
As part of these efforts, the Company is rationalizing its pipeline and eliminating several projects in development and streamlining its organizational structure, which will eliminate headcount and reduce future hiring needs.
Which is of course just the usual BS that a company dishes out when they lay folks off and the only upside is to investors. They didn’t just lay folks off, the group also sold their indie publishing arm Private Division in November 2024. This sale was to an unnamed buyer, but as far as we know, the plans around their titles have not changed.
Studios Sold:
Private Division
Intercept Games
Roll7
These are the games that were published by Take-Two Interactive in 2024, those bolded titles were original releases:
Penny's Big Breakaway*
WWE 2K24
TopSpin 2K25
Star Wars: Hunters
NBA 2K25
Red Dead Redemption
Titles with * were published before the studio/developer was sold
2K
31st Union
Locations: San Francisco, USA | Valencia, Spain
Last Game Released: None | Series: None
After being founded way back in February 2019, we had gone almost 5 years without learning what the debut game from this studio would be, until October 2024 that is. At that time it was revealed that Project ETHOS would be the debut game and is described as a free-to-play roguelike hero third-person shooter.
The studio hosted some community playtests last year, both hosted by the studio and through Steam and the response was seemingly good, but those were isolated tests and not open to all. Given that the game does not yet have a full name, nor any sort of release target, there is no telling where it is sitting in the development cycle. It is not uncommon for game makers to have folks come in and test the game out, it is a little less so to have people go to events to play an unannounced title, but that is where we are. The bigger concern for this one is that there are so many free to play shooters around and from those who have not played it, the vibe is that it is just another generic shooter. The studio are going to have a big hill to climb, in order to convince folks to try it and on a personal note for the director of one of my favourite games to create this, is a massive let down, more so when you learn that Dead Space and a trio of Call of Duty games were directed by the same person.
CAT DADDY GAMES
Last Game Released: NBA 2K Mobile | Series: NBA 2K Mobile series, WWE SuperCard series
If there was perhaps one studio that you could predict what they would do, with military like precision, it would be Cat Daddy Games. The studio has been making mobile games for 2K, specifically around their sports series, so WWE SuperCard, NBA 2K Mobile, NFL 2K Playmakers, that sort of thing.
Given that the studio just keeps the updates for their games coming and have for years now, don’t expect them to break tradition in 2025.
Cloud Chamber
Locations: Novato, USA | Montreal, Canada
Last Game Released: None | Series: None
Here we are again, more than 5 years since the studios founding and we still have not seen their debut game. We know it is a new entry in the Bioshock series, but that is all that has been publicly confirmed by 2K. We know that the studio has been given a bit of leeway to create the game they want, but there is leeway and then there is this.
At the time of writing the studio has 23 open roles, which range from art to audio, gameplay to producer. Given they are still hiring, if we see anything from them this year, it will likely be more open roles, but maybe they will surprise people with a trailer at some point.
FIRAXIS GAMES
Last Game Released: Marvel's Midnight Suns | Series: XCOM series, Civilization series
It has been a few years since Firaxis released a game, Midnight Suns being the last one, but it has been 8.5 years since the last Civilization game released. With Civilization VII releasing in just a few weeks, the studio is going to be all in on that.
Given how much support the last game received, there is little doubt we will keep hearing this groups name across 2025, just how frequently is going to be the question.
Hangar 13
Locations: Novato, USA | Brno, Czechia | Brighton, UK | Prague, Czechia
Last Game Released: TopSpin 2K25 | Series: Mafia series, TopSpin series
Last year, just days after we published our Take Two preview, the studio confirmed what we had written, that they were developing a new TopSpin game, which released in April 2024. Since that release, the studio has kept the game going with new seasons of content with the fifth season launching at the start of December 2024. But turns out, that was not the only serve that the studio had cooking, as in August 2024, Mafia: The Old Country was revealed and then just a few months later, was given a 2025 release date.
With TopSpin 2K25 still serving up content, we will see the studios name across the year, unless of course they slow down, but that is doubtful. Of course Mafia: The Old Country is expected to release sometime in September 2025, but there is no confirmed date yet, but as its a story driven game, the studio might want to keep a lid on revealing to much for it. Either way, we are likely to hear from this group a lot across 2025 and beyond.
HB STUDIOS
Last Game Released: PGA Tour 2K23 | Series: PGA Tour 2K23 series, Plenty of sports titles
Quite literally between us writing this feature up and us publishing it, HB Studios and 2K revealed PGA Tour 2K25. You can learn all about the details here, but as the game is out in just a few weeks, we are likely going to hear a lot from them until then.
Post the games released, if PGA Tour 2K23 is anything to go by, expect to hear from the studio every 3 to 4 months as they bring new seasons of content out to players.
VISUAL CONCEPTS
Locations: Novato, USA | Seoul, Korea | Shanghai, China | Orange County, USA | Austin, USA | Meridian, USA | Parksville, Canada | Budapest, Hungary | Irvine, USA | WWE Team, Remote
Last Game Released: NBA 2K25 | Series: NBA 2K series, WWE 2K series
For a number of years now, this studio has produced two titles WWE and NBA and just as we were writing this feature up, they revealed that WWE 2K25 is happening, but only with the barest of details. Given that WWE is the newer game, we will start hearing about that soon, but don’t forget NBA 2K25, as that game just launched its forth season of content.
With almost 700 people around the world, the Visual Concepts team is one of the largest at Take-Two and while they are on a cycle of NBA and WWE, they did throw out Lego 2K Drive a few years back. Given their size, it is not impossible that they have something else going on, but with how poorly Lego 2K Drive ended up selling, there is also a chance they are sticking with what they know. There are still rumours floating around of a 2K Soccer game, which these guys could have some hands on with it, but until something is officially announced, I expect this group is just going to stick to its two game cycle.
GEARBox Software
Locations: Frisco, USA | Montreal, Canada | Quebec, Canada
Last Game Released: New Tales from the Borderlands | Series: Brothers in Arms series, Borderlands series
Gearbox Software are best known today for their Borderlands series, but they have done a lot more than just that, starting out creating expansion content for existing games and then porting games to PC, they brought the first Halo to PC originally. The studio for a long time branched out into publishing games as well, Risk of Reign and Homeworld being the more notable examples. The studios last original game was New Tales from the Borderlands in 2022 and we know what they have been working on since, Borderlands 4.
Right now the game is only dated for 2025, but there is no firm date yet. The game is set to take place on a new world, though I am sure Pandora will pop up at some point and while it is not open world, it won’t be quite as structured as Borderlands 3 was. Given the overall lack of details, it is possible that the game could slip into 2026, but given across the three locations there are more than 1,000 staff at the studio, I would imagine they will push for a release this year. For now we wait on more details, but you can always reload on other games in the series if you need a fix of gun looting action.
GHOST STORY GAMES
Last Game Released: None | Series: None
Ghost Story has a similar tale to a few of the studios above, around for a long time before we finally learnt about their game, but we got a trailer for Judas back in December 2022. Since then however, there has not been a single official mention of the game. In fact not long after the game was revealed, we learnt that it was aiming to release by the end of the 2024 fiscal year, which for an American company means March 31st, 2025.
Now Take Two are not opposed to revealing a game and releasing it weeks later, see PGA Tour 2K25 above, when you have the next game from the creator of Bioshock, you are going to want to promote that. Last year did see Geoff Keighley did talk about his time playing the game, so it is clearly making progress, there is just no word on how much has been made. With Take-Two expecting to release Grand Theft Auto VI this year, I can see this one releasing sooner, if it is planned for 2025, but I can also see this one slipping to 2026. A fun little note, a local Melbourne based art studio, Next-Gen Dreams has been assisting with this game, along with perennial developer Virtuos.
ROCKSTAR GAMES
Locations: Dundee, Scotland | Bangalore, India | Santa Monica, USA | Leeds, England | Lincoln, England | London, England | Andover, USA | Edinburgh, Scotland | Carlsbad, USA | Oakville, USA |
Last Game Released: Red Dead Redemption 2 | Series: Bully: Scholarship Edition
Rockstar Games, outside of some ports of Red Dead Redemption to modern platforms, PC finally included, the studio has been doing two things, one is making content for GTA Online, which celebrated 11 years last year and two developing GTA VI.
GTA V first released in September 2013, which if GTA VI comes out after that will make a 12 year gap between them. We don’t yet know the games exact release date, they only have said 2025 for it when they revealed it via the trailer below. But before you lock and load for it, know that Rockstar and Take-Two are not going to release this game until they are good and ready, which could mean 2026 if they need more time. The other project the studio has in the works, yes they are doing more than just GTA, is the remake of Max Payne 1&2. They are overseeing the development of the game, but Remedy Entertainment is doing the actual development work. They have FBC: Firebreak and Alan Wake 2 content coming in 2025, so it is unlikely we will see much of the Max Payne remakes until 2026.
ZYNGA
The mobile branch of Take-Two, they make a few mobile games, ok they make a lot of games. Their biggest one is coming to PC early this year and is Star Wars Hunters, which has been out on Switch and mobile for half a year now, in full.
Given mobile developers are quiet until they announce, we have no idea what this group are doing.
Take-Two have a big year if all their games release, not counting their usual sports titles. But what say you, does anything here strike your fancy, or are you after something else?
