Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

Overview

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 asset is the wholly-owned Rockstar Games, Inc., which houses a large amount of development studios responsible for the acclaimed games in the Grand Theft Auto series.

In 2002 the publishing label Gotham Games was launched. In 2004 the company established 2K Sports as a label for sports games, mostly a continuation of the 2K series by Visual Concepts Entertainment. One year later, in 2005, 2K Games was formed, the company's most important publishing label. In 2007 the casual games publishing label 2K Play was launched.

Acquired development studios

TalonSoft (1999, closed in 2005 and sold largely to Matrix Games)
Poptop Software (2000, closed in 2006 and merged into Firaxis)
neo Software Produktions GmbH (2001, later Rockstar Vienna and closed in 2006)
Barking Dog Studios, Ltd. (2002, now Rockstar Vancouver)
Angel Studios (2002, now Rockstar San Diego)
Frog City Software (through Gathering, closed in 2006 and merged into Firaxis)
Mobius Entertainment (2004, now Rockstar Leeds)
Venom Games (2004)
Indie Built, Inc. (2004, closed down in 2006)
Visual Concepts Entertainment (2005)
Kush Games (2005)
Firaxis Games (2005)
Irrational Games (2006, now 2K Boston and 2K Australia)
Power and Magic Development (2006)
Illusion Softworks (2008, now 2K Czech)

Established development studios

2K Shanghai (2006)
2K Marin (2007)

Other acquisitions

Jack of All Games (1998, outsourced in 2008, sold in December 2009)
Global Star Software Inc. (1999)
Gathering of Developers (2000, eventually merged into Rockstar and 2K Games)
TDK Mediactive, Inc. (2003, now Take-Two Licensing, Inc.)

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.

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