Private Division's 'games and franchises,' including Kerbal Space Program, are reportedly being taken over by former Annapurna Interactive employees

(Image credit: Private Division)

Take-Two Interactive said in November 2024 that it had sold Private Division, the "high-end indie" publishing label it launched in 2017, to an undisclosed buyer, along with "substantially all of Private Division’s live and unreleased titles." The identity of the buyer was not revealed, but a new Bloomberg report (via Game Developer) says the division's "games and franchises" will be taken over by former employees of Annapurna Interactive, the gaming-focused subsidiary of Annapurna Pictures that collapsed in September 2024 after its entire staff and senior leadership team resigned.

The former Annapurna Interactive employees were not the buyers of Private Division themselves, according to the Bloomberg report: Haveli Investments, a private equity firm, made the purchase and subsequently did a deal with the ex-Annapurna staffers to take control of the games. It sounds like the Private Division label will not be retained, as the newly-formed company does not yet have a name, and some of the roughly 20 employees of Private Division will be laid off.

Annapurna Interactive was founded in 2016 and quickly established a reputation for publishing offbeat but excellent games including Kentucky Route Zero, Outer Wilds, Sayonara Wild Hearts, What Remains of Edith Finch, Telling Lies, Neon White, and Stray. But the staff resigned wholesale last year after a leadership shakeup and the collapse of negotiations to spin the division off into a standalone company. Annapurna Interactive continues to operate under new leadership and staff.

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As for Private Division, it apparently just wasn't big enough for Take-Two Interactive to bother with. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said Private Division's biggest games "were not big in the context of our core intellectual properties at 2K and Rockstar" when the sale was revealed, which was not a good fit for Take-Two's status as "being a top-ten player."

The Bloomberg report says the new company will take control of games including Tales of the Shire, which is set to launch on March 25, and maybe more interestingly, the Kerbal Space Program series. Kerbal Space Program 2 was expected to be Private Division's flagship game when it launched into early access in 2023, but it flopped badly and hasn't been updated since June 2024, leading many to assume it's been abandoned.

I've reached out to Haveli Investments for comment and will update if I receive a reply.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.