Kerbal Space Program publisher Private Division has been sold to a mystery buyer

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Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar and 2K Games, has sold its boutique publishing label Private Division to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed sum. The buyer has bought the rights to “substantially all” of Private Division’s live and unreleased titles. The sale was revealed in Take-Two’s latest financial report.

The news comes a few months after reports that Take-Two was moving to close two studios owned by Private Division — Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games and London-based Roll7, developer of the OlliOlli skating series. The majority of Private Division’s staff was also said to have been laid off at that time. Take-Two has confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that both studios were shuttered before the sale.

Take-Two retains one Private Division game: No Rest for the Wicked, an action role-playing game by Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios. The game is still in early access, and Take-Two says it will continue to support it.

Alongside Kerbal Space Program 2, Private Division’s mystery buyer has acquired the publishing rights to cozy Lord of the Rings game Tales of the Shire (which looks pretty good, actually), and Project Bloom, an action-adventure game from Pokémon developer Game Freak.

Private Division was formed by Take-Two in 2017 with the idea that it would support independent studios to make more ambitious and expensive projects that exist somewhere between traditional indie games and mainstream, AAA productions. Initially, it made a splash by publishing Obsidian’s sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds and acquiring popular physics sim Kerbal Space Program from its original developer Squad. But it has had few hits since. The much-touted Kerbal Space Program 2, released in 2023 and still in early access, has “mostly negative” user reviews on Steam — and, after Intercept Games’ closure, no current developer.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told GamesIndustry.biz that the publisher wants to focus on big-budget games, like Rockstar’s forthcoming Grand Theft Auto 6. “We’re really best at these big AAA experiences,” he said. “The team of Private Division did a great job supporting independent developers and, almost to a one, every project they supported did well. However, the scale of those projects was, candidly, on the smaller side, and we’re in the business of making great big hits.”