Private Division, a publishing branch of Take-Two Interactive, has marked its 5th anniversary by announcing a new creative fund as well as a new publishing agreement with Layers of Fear and Observer developer, Bloober Team.
The Private Division Development Fund aims to assist smaller, independent game studios in remaining independent and self-publishing their titles by way of mentorship and project financing.
“Since we announced Private Division five years ago, we’ve seen a number of promising game ideas from smaller teams that didn’t quite fit with our full-fledged publishing model. We knew we could not simply have a one-size-fits-all approach in today’s world. We never like to say ‘no’ to an incredible game concept due to the size of the project, and the Private Division Development Fund enables us to identify and support some of the best creative ideas our industry has to offer.”
– Blake Rochkind, Head of Business Development at Private Division.
Excitingly, the label has already announced some of the talent it’s helping to support in this initiative, including Radical Forge, Lost Native and one of my personal favourite studios, Die Gute Fabrik.
The label also announced it’s entered a publishing agreement with noted horror game developer Bloober Team, which will be developing a brand-new survival horror title. It’s reportedly still in early development and won’t be launching before “calendar 2025” at the earliest, but the studio is confident in what they’re creating.
“Our next project is an exciting new survival-horror game, which will help us become a leader in the horror industry at large. I am grateful for this cooperation with Private Division. Their expertise is extensive, and their people are also very approachable. We don’t perceive them in a typical ‘publisher-developer’ relationship; they’re more like a friend who shows us support or keeps us in line when we need it most.”
– Piotr Babieno, Chief Executive Officer of Bloober Team.