It seems that Take-Two is no longer so keen on opening up to indie titles, as the Strauss Zelnick-led company is now salivating over the cash that Grand Theft Auto VI will bring to the publisher…

Bloober Team hinted in a Polish-language financial statement that Take-Two had informed the studio a few days ago that a publishing deal with Private Division had been terminated. The team was working on Project C, an unannounced survival horror we first heard about a month ago. Twitter reports that the terms of the suspension are being negotiated so that Bloober can continue the project with another publisher.

Take-Two Interactive’s Private Division label has terminated its publishing agreement with Bloober Team for the development of Project C; an unannounced new survival horror IP.

Terms of termination are being negotiated, with Bloober Team possibly looking for another publisher. pic.twitter.com/EjHnp71nke

— MauroNL (@MauroNL3) May 30, 2024

A Take-Two spokesperson had only this to say: “As we announced earlier this month and in conjunction with our quarterly results, our entire organization contributed to our cost reduction efforts, including Private Division. We have refocused our pipeline within Private Division and still plan to support a number of titles, including Moon Studio’s No Rest for the Wicked, which launched on Early Access for PC on April 18th; Wētā Workshop Game Studio’s Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game, which is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2024; and our title in partnership with Gamefreak. We have nothing further to announce.

Private Division has undergone a number of changes after Take-Two announced that it would lay off 5% of the company’s workforce within a year, thanks to its third (!) cost-cutting program. We’ve already reported in rumor form that Roll7 (Rollderdrome) and Intercept Games (Kerbal Space Program 2) might be shutting down, and several of the latter have confirmed that layoffs will happen in June…

Meanwhile, IGN reports that most of the crew of Private Division, which launched in 2017, has already been let go, and that Take-Two will either shut down the whole thing or sell its subsidiary. In addition to Bloober Team, One More Level has also been left in the dust, as the developers of Ghostrunner were also going to publish with them, but in this case they’ve also canceled the publishing deal. Kerbal Space Program was going to be sold to Paradox with (or without) Intercept Games, but negotiations fell through. They were also in talks with a private equity firm to sell Take-Two Private Division to them, and Moon Studios brought the two parties together. The last release from this team was No Rest for the Wicked, and the studio best known for the Ori games was Private Division.

Thomas Mahler, CEO of Moon Studios, tweeted this as pure speculation: “I see so many depressing tweets from people who think we’re on the brink of a video game crash given recent events in the industry… I couldn’t disagree more with that view. What I see is an industry in desperate need of a course correction because for too long it has missed the forest for the trees. Instead of focusing on fun, a lot of publishers and studios chased AAA graphics and presentation, they chased a lot of things that players didn’t really care about, and because those things cost a lot of money to produce, they also introduced mechanics to squeeze more and more money out of players… until we hit the tipping point. And now that the sentiment has shifted a bit and more and more people have started to vote with their wallets, a lot of people in the industry who were set in their ways are confused and wondering why what has always worked in the past suddenly doesn’t work anymore. But you just have to focus on the core.

Why do we make games? Because we want to entertain people. We should always focus on having fun. I am actually very excited about where things are going, even if the industry has to go through a period of pain to come out the other side wiser. That’s okay. Mistakes were made, and now it’s time to correct course. I’m extremely confident that the best is yet to come, that we’re going to see entirely new games and genres and just fantastic new experiences as a result of all of this. That AAA developer who’s been set in their ways and let go might just seize the opportunity, roll up their sleeves, and come up with the next big thing. Always remember that when one door closes, another one opens. Embrace change, because change is inevitable,” Mahler wrote.

I see so many depressing takes from people who think that we’re close to a videogame crash given the recent events in the industry…

I really couldn’t disagree more with this outlook. What I’m seeing is an industry that’s in dire need to course correct because for too long the…

— thomasmahler (@thomasmahler) May 31, 2024

IGN’s sources point to Take-Two’s management, especially strategy chief Michael Woros (who also runs Private Division), for mismanaging things. He sets unattainable sales goals and pushes games out before they are ready. So again, bad management is to blame. How surprising… not.

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