Between publishing labels 2K, Rockstar, and Private Divison, Take-Two is one of the largest and most renowned game publishers in the business; the company’s stable of acclaimed franchises includes Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, BioShock, NBA 2K, XCOM, and Civilization, among many others.
Between now and March 2024, the company plans to release over 40 games for console/PC, including 23 “immersive core” titles, which covers staples like GTA, BioShock, and 2K sports games; six Private Division games; four “mid-core” games (think WWE Battlegrounds); and nine ports or remasters.
Given Take-Two’s pedigree, the prospect of 40 new games over the next two years is an exciting one. To give you a better idea of what to expect, we’ve compiled a list of every Take-Two game in development. This list includes games we know (or can safely assume) are in development for console and/or PC— neither rumored projects, like 2K’s LEGO sports games, nor mobile games, including those from soon-to-be Take-Two-owned Zynga, are included.
The Quarry
The Quarry is Supermassive’s spiritual successor to Until Dawn, the narrative-driven PS4 exclusive from 2015. A teen horror story set in the woods of Upstate New York, The Quarry features nine playable characters — any of whom can die based on player decisions, according to game director Will Byles.
Supermassive is leaning into the social experience of Until Dawn by implementing local co-op in The Quarry, with each player controlling a character of their choice. The story will run roughly 7–10 hours based on player decisions/character deaths.
Supermassive’s Hollywood influences for The Quarry include Friday the 13th, The Thing, and Evil Dead, while its Hollywood cast includes David Arquette (Scream), Ariel Winter (Modern Family), Justice Smith (Detective Pikachu), and Brenda Song (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, The Social Network).
Be sure to check out our The Quarry hands-on preview for more.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Inspired by the early ‘90s Marvel Comics storyline of the same name, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is the next strategy game from acclaimed tactics developer Firaxis. You play as The Hunter, a customizable superhero, fighting alongside Avengers (Iron Man, Captain America), X-Men (Wolverine, Magik), and other Marvel heroes like Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, Ghost Rider, and Blade.
Midnight Suns is more than "Marvel XCOM"; it’s “easily as tactical as XCOM,” according to creative director Jake Solomon, but faster-paced, with a new card-based system that adds a layer of customization and randomness to combat. Despite the introduction of a deckbuilding element, Midnight Suns will not include randomized loot boxes, though there will be a marketplace for cosmetic-only outfits.
Outside of combat, players can forge relationships with other heroes at a home base called the Abbey. Engaging with characters at the Abbey can unlock new costumes that enable new abilities. Characters cannot, however, be romanced.
The game was initially due out in March, though it's since been delayed to the second half of 2022.
Kerbal Space Program 2
Take-Two’s Kerbal Space Program sequel adds new spacecraft, parts, buildings, and quality of life improvements such as a moveable launch tower and skippable launch countdown. KSP 2 aims to be more accessible to new players without diluting the challenge for space sim enthusiasts.
KSP 2 was initially in development at Star Theory, a studio that has since been shuttered. In 2020 development moved in-house to Private Division’s Intercept Games, with many key developers moving with the sequel to the new company. The business maneuvers around the change were controversial at the time: A Bloomberg headline detailing the shake-up reads “Game Publisher Cancels Contract With Developer, Then Tries to Poach Its Entire Team."
KSP 2 was originally due out in 2020, before being delayed to Fall 2021 and again to 2022. The IP was acquired by Take-Two in 2017 following the success of the first Kerbal Space Program.
Tales from the Borderlands 2
A new Tales from the Borderlands is coming later in 2022. The new Tales will feature "all-new characters and stories set in the Borderlands universe," according to Gearbox's Randy Pitchford. The project has been "secretly" in development at Gearbox for "many years," he added.
Pitchford revealed the game in April during PAX East, though a proper announcement won't come until summer. Gearbox did, however, release the game's first teaser image, which you can see below.
The first Tales from the Borderlands, released between 2014 and 2015, is an episodic adventure game developed by Telltale. Set between Borderlands 2 and 3, it introduced characters such as Rhys and Vaughn to the Borderlands universe. With that iteration of Telltale Games no longer around, Gearbox has brought development of the next Tales in-house.
2K NFL Arcade Game
In 2020, 2K and the NFL announced “a multi-year partnership encompassing multiple future video games.” The first of those games was meant to be released in 2021, though it’s now been delayed to 2022 or later.
Unlike EA’s Madden NFL franchise, these will be “non-simulation football games” built around “fun, approachable, and social experiences experiences” that cater to “a more casual market,” according to 2K. The games will, however, feature real NFL players.
This will be 2K’s first football game since the excellent ESPN NFL 2K5 in July 2004.
2K Sports Games
In addition to the new NFL games, we can expect new entries in 2K’s regular sports series: NBA 2K and WWE 2K. The company also signed a multi-year deal with Tiger Woods in 2021 to be the face of PGA Tour 2K moving forward.
While new entries in each of these three series haven’t been officially announced, 2K’s licensing deals and past release cadences suggest new games are all but certainly in the works.
31st Union Multiplayer Game
A new “multiplayer character-action game” is in the works at 31st Union, a studio led by Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey. The new IP will be the Silicon Valley-based developer’s first release since it was formed in 2019. The studio has since opened a second office in Spain, thanks to 2K’s acquisition of Elite3D, as noted by GamesIndustry.biz.
Before leaving Sledgehammer, Condrey co-directed Call of Duty: WW2. The veteran dev also helped bring Dead Space to life as a key member of EA's now-defunct Visceral Games.
BioShock 4
It’s been a long wait for BioShock fans, who last visited the captivating worlds of Columbia and Rapture in 2014 with the conclusion of BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea. Following various reports and rumors, 2K officially announced it’s working on a new BioShock in 2019.
The next entry in the immersive first-person shooter series is in development at Cloud Chamber, a new studio comprised of former BioShock developers (including BioShock and BioShock Infinite art director Scott Sinclair) and newcomers alike. The team is led by longtime Firaxis dev Kelley Gilmore, while BioShock veteran Hoagy de la Plante serves as creative director. (BioShock creator Ken Levine is not involved with the project.; Levine now heads another development studio within 2K, Ghost Story Games — more on what he and his team are working on below.)
At the time of the announcement, Cloud Chamber said its BioShock would be in development “for the next several years." While there have been no official updates in the three years since, we've been able to glean some minor details from various job listings: The new BioShock will be an "immersive sandbox" first-person shooter set in a “new and fantastical world," potentially built in the recently released Unreal Engine 5.
Remastered versions of all three BioShock games (plus their DLCs) were released in 2016 as BioShock: The Collection. A live-action BioShock movie is also in the works at Netflix.
Die Gute Fabrik Story-Driven Adventure Game
Danish indie studio Die Gute Fabrik signed a deal with Private Division in March to create a new, story-driven adventure game.
"It’s a little while yet before we can tell you more about the project,” Die Gute Fabrik CEO Hannah Nicklin said alongside the announcement, “but we're excited to build on everything we learned from Mutazione.”
Mutazione is the studio’s "mutant soap opera" game from 2019. The developer is also behind 2014’s Sportsfriends, which our review called a “dynamic and addictingly deep local multiplayer game.”
Grand Theft Auto 6
The biggest franchise in Take-Two’s stable is getting another proper entry with Grand Theft Auto 6, Rockstar confirmed in early 2022. While Rockstar just made the confirmation this year, we first heard GTA 6 was in development back in 2020, though the project has likely been in the works, to some degree, since the release of Red Dead 2 in 2018, if not Grand Theft Auto 5 in 2013.
As part of the announcement, Rockstar said “active development” is “well underway.” A release window for GTA 6 has not been announced, though multiple sources suggest Rockstar is targeting 2024-2025.
Notably, GTA 6 will be the series’ first game since GTA 1 without Dan Houser; the Rockstar co-founder and longtime series writer left the studio in 2020. His brother and co-founder, Sam Houser, remains with Rockstar.
While official details from Rockstar are limited, a 2021 Take-Two patent may describe how Rockstar will improve NPC behavior in GTA 6. Fans, meanwhile, believe they’ve discovered the first GTA 6 screenshot housed in Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition’s version of San Andreas. If the screenshot is legitimate, then GTA 6 would potentially bring the series back to Vice City.
The 10-plus-year gap between GTA 5 and 6 will be the longest in series history by far, though Rockstar has had little reason to rush: Grand Theft Auto 5 has been a golden goose for the company, selling over 160 million copies and creating an all-new revenue stream with GTA Online.
Ken Levine's New Game
In 2017, 12 former Irrational Games developers, including BioShock creator Ken Levine, formed Ghost Story Games. The studio, headed by Levine, has yet to announce its debut project, though we know it’s working on a story-driven, “immersive sci-fi game with RPG elements.”
The story will employ Levine’s “Narrative Legos” design philosophy, in which stories can be built out of hundreds of connectable narrative pieces. The design would theoretically enable Ghost Story to realize its vision of making “a flexible narrative that is broadly replayable and strongly adaptive to player choice.”
While the game has yet to be revealed, Levine has given several hints over the years as to what players can expect:
- Levine was inspired by Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system, though he says what he and his team are doing is “much more ambitious."
- Like BioShock before it, Ghost Story’s game may be a first-person shooter
- It’s likely an Unreal Engine project
- It probably won't have cut scenes, as Levine told Rolling Stone he has a “deep philosophical aversion" to them
- More from a 2015 Q&A: The game is set in an all-new universe; it is “large-ish” in scope; the story will use something “like chapters,” rather than a traditional three-art structure; the main character will likely be customizable, though that (and any information here) may have changed over the last seven years.
Earlier this year, eight years after Levine began work on the project, Bloomberg published a report claiming the game was in “development hell.” The studio's original idea, said to be "a sci-fi shooter like BioShock set on a mysterious space station inhabited by three factions,” was reportedly targeting a Fall 2017 release. However, multiple reboots and changes in direction at Levine’s discretion purportedly set the project back by years.
On a potentially more optimistic note, Ghost Story is currently hiring a Campaign Director to lead the marketing rollout for its game — a sign that development may be progressing toward the finish line.
Max Payne 1 & 2 Remakes
Rockstar and Remedy are collaborating on remakes of Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Remedy, the developer of those original games, will reprise that role for the remakes, with Rockstar financing and publishing. The remakes will be made with Remedy’s in-house Northlight engine.
While the companies have yet to share much info, we can safely assume these will be proper remakes given the project’s budget is “in line with a typical Remedy AAA-game production.”
The remakes, which will be packaged as a single game, are still in the “concept development stage,” according to Remedy.
Moon Studios Action-RPG
The next game from Moon Studios is an untitled action-RPG published by Private Division. The companies have yet to provide an update on the project since it was announced in July 2020.
While short on specifics, Moon Studios did share its ambition for the game, saying it “rises above anything we’ve created thus far.” The studio was recently the subject of a report that characterized it as an "oppressive workplace.”
The developer’s debut games, 2015’s Ori and the Blind Forest and the 2020 sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps, are gorgeous action-platformers that earned review scores of 8.5 and 9 from IGN, respectively.
Unannounced Hangar 13 Project
Hangar 13, the 2K-owned studio behind Mafia 3, is also hiring for a new project, though details have not yet been revealed.
The new project comes after Take-Two canceled the studio’s last game. That game, reportedly codenamed Volt, was said to be a third-person action title in the vein of Destiny. According to the report, Take-Two had $53 million invested in the project before canceling it due to the high development cost compared to the game's commercial viability.
Other Private Division Projects
In addition to the three Private Divison projects listed above, the Take-Two publishing label has announced partnerships with four additional developers: Evening Star, League of Geeks (Armello), Piccolo Studio (Arise: A Simple Story), and Yellow Brick Games.
Evening Star’s project is a 3D action-platformer developed using the studio’s proprietary Star Engine. Before creating Evening Star, the studio’s founders worked on Sonic Mania Plus.
Melbourne-based League of Geeks is working on an “ambitious” new IP for Private Division. The studio previously released the digital board game Armello in 2015.
Little is known about Piccolo’s project beyond its description as “a unique new IP.” The Barcelona-based studio’s debut game, Arise: A Simple Story, was released in late 2019.
Given the studio’s pedigree, the most promising of these four projects is a fantasy action-RPG in the works at Yellow Brick Games. The studio was founded by four industry veterans who worked on games in the Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Watch Dogs, Rainbow Six, and Assassin's Creed series. Mike Laidlow, creative director of Dragon Age: Inquisition, serves as the new studio’s CCO.
Private Division said the first of these projects will be released during Take-Two’s fiscal year 2024 (April 2023–March 2024), though that grouping also includes the aforementioned story-driven adventure game from Die Gute Fabrik.
Looking for more info on upcoming games? Check out our similar features on Square Enix, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and EA.
You can also read IGN's reviews of each Take-Two game released this year — all three of which earned a review score of 8 or higher:
from IGN Video Games https://ift.tt/0rleAs9
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