Michael Condrey is a veteran developer who has worked on at several major publishers across his career. At EA, he was a director on the original Dead Space and Dead Space: Extraction. After moving to Activision, he helped to co-found Sledgehammer Games alongside Glen Schofield. When Call of Duty: WWII shipped, he announced he was leaving Activision. Today, a new announcement by Take-Two and 2K has seen Michael Condrey named President of a new Take-Two Interactive studio.
This new studio is based in Silicon Valley, California in the USA. This studio has yet to have an official name revealed, and will join the other studios under the 2K family, such as Firaxis Games and Hangar 13.
David Ismailer, President at 2K, stated that “At 2K, we offer our collective audience a variety of engaging and captivating entertainment experiences. We continually seek opportunities to empower and invest in the right people and ideas. Michael’s unparalleled creative, production and leadership accolades are well-documented and deserved. We are greatly inspired not only by his passion but the potential for his new studio to complement our existing portfolio and development expertise. We welcome Michael to the 2K family and look forward to seeing our new Silicon Valley studio flourish in the months and years to come.”
Michael Condrey said that “Great games come from the passion of a team driven by the pursuit of quality and the empowerment of an independent studio model. 2K’s studios have creative and technical autonomy, backed by a world-class infrastructure of support, and that offers the perfect recipe to build a new studio and craft experiences that will lead the next generation of gaming for fans everywhere. David and the dedicated people at 2K and Take-Two have an extensive history of rich and established brands, as well as a long tenure of executive leadership committed to supporting the ambitions of their independent studio teams.”
Early in 2018, Jason Schreier from Kotaku reported that a new BioShock game codenamed Parkside was in development at a new, secret 2K studio. It seems plausible that this new unnamed studio Michael Condrey has joined is one and the same.
Regardless of whether it’s the same studio or not, this is an interesting move for Michael and a big pickup for 2K and Take-Two. We’ll be sure to report on any future developments.
