Zelnick on Private Division sale: “Those projects were smaller, we’re in the business of big hits”

Take-Two Interactive has confirmed the sale of Private Division for an undisclosed sum, as it drops the indie-focused publishing label to focus on larger projects.

In statements alongside the publisher’s latest financial results, the company confirmed another party has acquired not only the Private Division label, but also all of its live and unreleased titles.

Take-Two will continue to support Moon Studios’ action RPG No Rest for the Wicked, which launched in Early Access on PC back in April.

The publisher has not disclosed the buyer that now owns Private Division, but CEO Strauss Zelnick told GamesIndustry.biz that it will do so “relatively soon.”

Reports that Take-Two was planning to close or sell Private Division first emerged in June, shortly after the news that it had reportedly shut down Roll7 and Intercept Games, as well as laid off a number of staff.

Private Division also reportedly dropped its publishing deal with Silent Hill 2 remake developer Bloober Team.

When asked why the company has sold off the label, and why it struggled, Zelnick told GamesIndustry.biz it was part of larger plans to focus on the publisher’s strengths in AAA and mobile.

“We made this strategic decision so that we could focus all of our resources on growing our core and mobile businesses for the long term,” the CEO told us. “We’re really best at these big AAA experiences. We have the biggest intellectual properties in the interactive entertainment business, some of the biggest intellectual properties in the overall entertainment business and to make sequels to existing beloved franchises as well as to create new hit intellectual properties is our mission.

“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.”

There was confusion as to whether the aforementioned studios had actually shut down, with Zelnick claiming neither studio had technically been closed, although a WARN notice indicated that Intercept was due to close its doors in July following widespread layoffs at the studio.

A Take-Two spokesperson has now confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that both studios were closed prior to the sale of Private Division.

The changes and layoffs at Private Division follow Take-Two’s announcement back in April that it would be laying off 5% of all staff as part of the publisher’s third cost-reduction program in over a year.