2K Games buys HookBang
2K Games has announced that it has acquired HookBang, a Texas developer now 100% owned by Take-Two Interactive. The studio will be renamed Visual Concepts Austin and will work on NBA 2K and the publisher's other sports games.Visual Concepts Austin joins the already extensive Visual Concepts family that can count on a vast network of studios located in San Francisco , Los Angeles, Vancouver, Seoul, Shanghai and Budapest. The new studio will be based in the Austin metropolitan area and will employ hundreds of employees who will be responsible for supporting the development of NBA 2K and more generally of 2K Games titles.
HookBang was founded in 2012 and recently worked with Visual Concepts collaborating on the development of NBA 2K21 providing support for art, design and technical part. Frank Roan, CEO of HookBang, said he was very satisfied with the acquisition and Greg Thomas (president of Visual Concepts) also expressed positive opinions on the acquisition, thanking HookBang for the work done so far on the NBA 2K series and officially giving welcome team members to the Visual Concepts family.
2K Games is expanding its sports gaming business and in addition to NBA 2K and WWE the company is now committed to the development of officially licensed PGA golf games .
2K acquires HookBang games business
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2K Games today announced it has acquired the games division of Austin-based HookBang.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The HookBang games team has worked on NBA 2K21 and created the web game PackRat.
2K has said it will rebrand the team as Visual Concepts Austin, and set it to work supporting future NBA 2K games as well as the company's publishing business.
The team will relocate to a new office in Austin, where 2K plans to employ hundreds of developers.
'Working with a studio as prominent as Visual Concepts on NBA 2K21 was an extraordinary opportunity for HookBang,' HookBang CEO Frank Roan said.
'Formally joining Visual Concepts and 2K allows us to accelerate our impact on the product, the company and the Austin development community.'
2K parent Take-Two Interactive has been busy on the acquisitions front of late. In November, it attempted to add Codemasters to its ranks but was outbid by EA.
It was more successful with a bid for Playdots in August, and last week's addition of HB Studios.
Like HookBang, HB Studios was previously an external partner of 2K Sports, having developed the PGA Tour 2K franchise for the publisher.