Another Company Buyout

[Wizard]

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Acquires Irrational Games

Acclaimed Developer Joins 2K's Roster of Development Studios

New York, NY – January 9, 2006 – Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) today announced the acquisition of Irrational Games, the award-winning development studio behind such titles as System Shock 2 and Freedom Force. Irrational Games joins the team of development studios under Take-Two's 2K Games publishing label.

 

2K Games has multiple titles in development at Irrational's North American and Australian studios. The first title to be published under the 2K Games label will be BioShock, a role-playing shooter for next-generation console systems and PC. Already anticipated by the gaming press as one of the most innovative next-generation titles, BioShock is planned for release in early 2007.

 

"We saw a rare opportunity with Irrational Games, a development studio that has consistently produced creative and original games," said Christoph Hartmann, Managing Director at 2K Games. Susan Lewis, VP of Business Development at 2K Games, added, "2K Games will provide additional resources and support to the Irrational team so they may continue to deliver cutting-edge games."

 

"We are excited to be aligned with a publishing label like 2K Games that shares similar development goals and vision," said Ken Levine, co-founder and President of Irrational Games. "Fans will be blown away when they see the next-generation titles we are working on."

 

About Irrational Games

 

With offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Canberra, Australia, Irrational Games is widely recognized as one of the industry's leading game developers. Irrational has earned a reputation for creating story-driven, genre-defining games with award-winning hits like System Shock 2, Freedom Force, Tribes: Vengeance and SWAT 4. For more information, visit www.IrrationalGames.com.

 

About Take-Two Interactive Software

 

Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an integrated global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games and accessories for the PC, PlayStation® game console, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) system, the Xbox® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube™, Nintendo DS™ and Game Boy® Advance. The Company publishes and develops products through its wholly owned labels Rockstar Games, 2K Games, 2K Sports and Global Star Software; and distributes products in North America through its Jack of All Games subsidiary. Take-Two also manufactures and markets video game accessories in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region through its Joytech subsidiary. The Company maintains sales and marketing offices in Cincinnati, New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Vienna, Milan, Sydney, Breda (Netherlands) and Auckland. Take-Two's common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at www.take2games.com.

 

All trademarks and copyrights contained herein are the property of their respective holders.

>> Press Release [T2]

 

Impending video game crash? Or just bigger companies eliminating smaller ones just for the hell of it?

[Gryph]

They also bought Firaxis.

[ken_cinder]

I, again, smell an impending crash. First with the last generation of games and a little before it, there was oversaturation, now we're starting to see things drying up because all these companies are merging/being bought out. It's going to get to a point where there are less than 10 major development houses outside of 1st party/1st party owned developers, and the sh!t will hit the fan at that point.

 

Afterall.........you can only have so many Medal of Honor and NHL clones. <_>

[Wizard]

They also bought Firaxis.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know that, I recently got my free tech tree and it was from Take 2.

[Gryph]

Well they were the publishers so they're supposed to take care of that even if they didn't buy Firaxis. They bought them after Civ 4 shipped.

 

Either way, I don't really see this as bad as a move as others have. As long as Take 2 keeps their flocking hands off BioShock I don't give a crap what they do.