Moon Studios – the developer behind the acclaimed Ori series – has announced it’s now ‘fully independent’, having secured the publishing rights to its latest game, No Rest for the Wicked, from Grand Theft Auto and Borderlands publisher Take-Two Interactive.
No Rest for the Wicked, which released into early access last year, was originally set to be published by Private Division – the indie-focused label established by Take-Two in 2017. However, those plans changed following Take-Two’s decision to sell Private Division to an unnamed party last year, as it shifted its focus away from smaller titles.
The sale, Take-Two revealed at the time, would include the rights to “substantially all” of Private Division’s live and unreleased titles, including the likes of Kerbal Space Program 2 – but the publisher confirmed it would continue to support No Rest for the Wicked, despite the sale.
Now, however – some four months after Private Division’s divestment – Moon Studios has announced it’s secured the publishing rights to No Rest for the Wicked from Take-Two Interactive, insisting the move will allow it to “execute our vision without restrictions.” The developer’s announcement coincides with a major update for the action-RPG, which will have been in PC and Xbox early access for a year next month.
As for Private Division, a report in January claimed it had been purchased by Texas-based private equity firm Haveli Investments. More notably, however, the firm was said to have struck a deal with ex-Annapurna employees – who departed the acclaimed indie publisher en masse last year following a dispute with owner Megan Ellison – to fund a new company that would distribute former Private Division titles. These include the Kerbal Space Program series (despite the closure of its development team), upcoming Lord of the Rings farming game Tales of the Shire, and Pokémon developer Game Freak’s new action-adventure IP.