Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is one of the largest publishing and distribution houses in North America and was originally founded in 1993 by Ryan Brant. The company has an extensive portfolio of games and IP, mostly through the acquisition of development studios. Its strongest assets are the wholly-owned labels Rockstar Games, Inc. and 2K Games, Inc., which house a large amount of development studios responsible for the acclaimed games series such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, X-COM, Civilization and more. The company entered the European publishing and distribution business in 1997 through the acquisition of GameTek UK Ltd., which was renamed Take-Two Interactive Software Europe Ltd.

The company was also involved with video game peripherals through its wholly-owned Joytech subsidiary, until it was sold to Mad Catz Interactive in September 2007.

In February 2008 Electronic Arts set its sights on the company and most importantly the Rockstar studios it owns, mostly in response of the merger between Activision and Vivendi, but eventually in October 2008 it was confirmed there was no agreement.

Known subsidiaries

Names in italics used to be subsidiaries, but no longer are as they were closed or sold off.

Labels

• Rockstar Games (1998-present)
• Global Star Software (acquired in 1999, absorbed into 2K Play in 2007)
• Gathering of Developers (acquired in 2000, closed in 2004)
• Gotham Games (2002-2003)
• 2K Games (2005-present)
  • 2K Sports (2004-present, acquired from Visual Concepts Entertainment)
  • 2K Play (2007-2012)
• Private Division (2017-present)

Acquired development studios

• Mission Studios (1996 - closed in 2001)
• GameTek Canada (1997, later Take-Two Canada / Rockstar Canada / Rockstar Toronto)
• Alternative Reality Technologies (1997)
• Tarantula Studios (1998, later Rockstar Lincoln)
• DMA Design (1999, later Rockstar North)
• TalonSoft (1999, closed in 2005 and sold largely to Matrix Games)
• PopTop Software (2000, closed in 2006 and merged into Firaxis Games)
• neo Software Produktions GmbH (2001, later Rockstar Vienna, closed in 2006)
• Barking Dog Studios, Ltd. (2002, later Rockstar Vancouver, merged into Rockstar Toronto in 2012)
• Angel Studios (2002, later Rockstar San Diego)
• Cat Daddy Games (2003)
• Frog City Software (2003, closed in 2006 and merged into Firaxis Games)
• Möbius Entertainment (2004, later Rockstar Leeds)
• Venom Games (2004, closed in 2008)
• Indie Built, Inc. (2004, closed in 2006)
• Visual Concepts Entertainment (2005)
  • Take-Two Interactive Software Vancouver
• Kush Games (2005, later 2K Los Angeles, closed in 2008)
• Magic Pockets (2005, became independent again in 2007)
• Firaxis Games (2005)
• Irrational Games (2006, later 2K Boston / Ghost Story Games)
• Irrational Games Australia (2006, later 2K Australia, closed in 2015)
• Power and Magic Development (2006)
• Mad Doc Software (2008, later Rockstar New England)
• Illusion Softworks (2008, later 2K Czech; split in 2017 to Hangar 13 Brno and Hangar 13 Prague)
• Specular Interactive (2016, later Visual Concepts South)
• Gameaholic (2016, later Hangar 13 Brighton)
• Ruffian Games (2020, later Rockstar Dundee)
• HookBang (2021, later Visual Concepts Austin)
• Elite3d Team (2021, later 2K Valencia)
• HB Studios Multimedia (2021)
• Zynga (2022)
• Standard Deviation (2023, later Rockstar LA)
• Gearbox Software (2024)
  • Gearbox Publishing (2024; main studio only)
  • Gearbox Studio Montréal (2024)
  • Gearbox Studio Québec (2024)

Established development studios

• Rockstar London (2005)
• 2K Shanghai / 2K China (2006)
• 2K Marin (2007, later Cloud Chamber)
• 2K Hangzhou (2007)
• 2K Chengdu (2011)
• 2K Vegas (2012)
• Hangar 13 Novato (2014)
• Rockstar India (2016)
• Visual Concepts Hungary (2018)
• 31st Union (2019)
• Rockstar New York (2020)
• 2K Madrid (2021)

Other acquisitions

• GameTek UK Ltd. (1997, renamed Take-Two Interactive Software Europe Ltd.)
• BMG Interactive Entertainment (1998)
• Jack of All Games (1998, outsourced in 2008, sold in December 2009)
• TDK Mediactive, Inc. (2003, now Take-Two Licensing, Inc.)
• Cfx.re (2023)

Known distribution offices: Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom (for Europe), United Kingdom (for Hong Kong and South Korea).