Private Division, Take Two Interactive's indie publishing label, has canceled a deal with Polish developer Bloober Team to publish a survival horror game known only as Project C.
In a press release, shared on Twitter by MauroNL and translated from Polish, via Google, Bloober Team revealed it had received a letter 'regarding the termination by the Publisher of the production and publishing agreement'.
The deal for Project C was originally signed by the two parties in September 2021, but it seemingly included a clause by which Take Two could cancel the agreement 'without giving any reason'. It appears the publisher has now put this into effect. As pointed out by Mauro, this isn't the first time Take Two has enacted such a clause either. Two years ago, it terminated a similar agreement with People Can Fly for a game known as Project Dagger.
The cancellation of the deal likely relates to significant changes within Private Division itself. Earlier this month, it was reported that the "vast majority" of the publishing label's staff had been laid off following Take Two's announcement of plans to cut 5% of its workforce. This move included the reported closure of Roll7, creators of the excellent OlliOlii World and more recently, Rollerdrome, as well as layoffs at Intercept Games, developer of Kerbal Space Program 2.
The termination of the deal doesn't necessarily mean the end for the mysterious Project C, however. The press release notes that Bloober Team "took such a scenario into account and are prepared for potential alternatives" which includes the possibility of finding a new publisher. In any case, work on Project C is continuing for the time being.
Alongside Project C, Bloober Team is currently working on the remake of Silent Hill 2 for Konami, which had a decent showing at yesterday's State of Play, announcing a release date of October 8. We can also expect to see more projects like this from Bloober Team now on. In June last year, the studio said it was finished with 'psychological horror' games like Layers of Fear and the Medium, and was pursuing 'mass-market horror' from that point onward. This further suggests that Project C's is a more ambitious affair than the studio's previous games.
