Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (sometimes shortened to Take 2 Interactive or T2) is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993.
The company owns three major publishing labels: Rockstar Games, Zynga and 2K, which operate internal game development studios. Take-Two created the Private Division label to support publishing from independent developers, though it sold the label in 2024 to private equity. The company also formed Ghost Story Games which was a former 2K studio under the name Irrational Games. The company acquired the developers Socialpoint, Playdots and Nordeus to establish itself in the mobile game market. The company also owns 50% of professional esports organization NBA 2K League through NBA Take-Two Media.[2][3] Take-Two's combined portfolio includes franchises such as BioShock, Borderlands, Civilization, Grand Theft Auto, Mafia, NBA 2K, WWE 2K, and Red Dead among others.
As of April 2025, it is one of the largest publicly traded game companies globally with an estimated market cap of US$41 billion.[4]
History
1993–2000: Formation and initial growth
Take-Two Interactive was founded by Ryan Ashley Brant (1971–2019), the son of media executive and Interview co-owner Peter Brant. Ryan Brant had attended the Hotchkiss School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in May 1992. He began his career in May 1991, working for his father as the chief operating officer of Stewart, Tabori & Chang, a publisher of illustrated books, until August 1993.[5][6] As Brant wanted to forge his own path, he decided to create a video game publishing company. He stated "I wanted to get into a business where I could raise capital as a younger guy. In technology, people expect you to be a younger person."[5] An initial US$1.5 million in funding was raised from his family and private investors.[5]
Company structure
Take-Two's executive offices and worldwide headquarters are located in New York City. The company runs its European operations from Windsor, Berkshire and its Asian operations from Singapore. As of 2018, Take-Two's primary business is through two self-owned publishing labels. One label is Rockstar Games, also located in New York City, and is specialized on development and publication of action-adventure games such as Grand Theft Auto. The other label is 2K, headquartered in Novato, California, and is composed of its divisions 2K Games, 2K Sports, and 2K Play. The 2K Sports division handles the development and publication of Take-Two's sports simulation games, such as the NBA 2K series. 2K Play covers family-friendly and children's video games produced by Take-Two's studios. 2K Games handles nearly all other production from Take-Two's internal development studios as well as titles from selected third parties.
Finally, Take-Two owns Zynga, a developer for the mobile game market. With this structure in place since 1997–1998, each label is an incorporated principal operating businesses and has a higher degree of autonomy, and each with their own infrastructure and resources, management, and profit and loss strategies.
Take-Two has divested itself of its older manufacturing and distribution operations in favor of digital publication and third-party retail distribution. Since 2016, around half of the company's revenues are from digital distribution, whether from digital sales of games through personal computer or consoles, or through
Litigation
Take-Two has used trademark dilution complaints to prevent other publishers and developers from registering trademarks comparable to Take-Two's own trademarks, such as blocking trademark registration that involve "rockstar", "bully", "2K", and the capital letter "R".[232][233] The publisher filed a dispute against Hazelight Studios to block its attempt to trademark It Takes Two, due to the similarity of its name to Take-Two's. Hazelight was forced to abandon the trademark application, making it more difficult to promote the game.[234][235][236]
Take-Two has also been active in blocking the release of mods for Grand Theft Auto games. While some of these mods had used assets from the original games and gave valid reason for Take-Two to protect its copyrights, other mods that Take-Two had targeted were made from legal reverse engineering
Games published
External links
References
- Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. FY 2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K) US Securities and Exchange Commission, May 20, 2025, retrieved March 26, 2026^
- Esports hits the court as players gear up for the NBA 2K League finals CNBC, August 23, 2018, retrieved September 5, 2018^
- NBA, Take-Two Form New Media Company to 'Celebrate' Basketball, Extend Long-Standing Games Pact