| Visual Concepts Entertainment | |
| Logo Upright: | 0.75 |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Industry: | Video games |
| Hq Location City: | Novato, California |
| Hq Location Country: | US |
| Key People: | Greg Thomas (president) |
| Num Employees: | 350+ |
| Num Employees Year: | 2018 |
Visual Concepts Entertainment is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. Founded in May 1988, the company is best known for developing sports games in the 2K franchise, most recently NBA 2K and WWE 2K, and previously NFL 2K and College Hoops 2K. Visual Concepts was acquired by Sega in May 1999 and sold to Take-Two Interactive in January 2005. The acquisition of the company led Take-Two Interactive to open their 2K label which Visual Concepts became part of, on the day following the acquisition. As of December 2018, the company employs more than 350 people.[1]
Visual Concepts was founded in 1988 by programmer Scott Patterson and brothers Greg and Jeff Thomas, and was originally based in a small office above a bank in Novato, California.[2] On January 25, 1995, Electronic Arts announced that they had acquired a stake in the company.[3] In September 1997, Sega announced their intentions to acquire the company; the deal was closed on May 18, 1999, and Visual Concepts switched ownership for an undisclosed sum.[4]
Following a June 2004 deal between Sega and Take-Two Interactive, wherein the two would co-publish and distribute titles in Visual Concepts' ESPN-based game series,[5] rumors started spreading in December 2004, which suggested that Take-Two Interactive was planning to acquire Visual Concepts from Sega.[6] [7] On January 24, 2005, Take-Two Interactive announced to have completed a transaction of to Sega for the acquisition of Visual Concepts, its subsidiary Kush Games, and the intellectual property to the 2K franchise.[8] [9] The publisher's 2006 Form 10-K filing later showed that a total of had been paid to Sega for the acquisition of Visual Concepts and affiliated properties by January 2006.[10] On January 25, 2005, the day following the acquisition, Take-Two Interactive announced their new publishing label, 2K, which would henceforth manage Visual Concepts and Kush Games.[11]
A March 2009 research study on Metacritic scores, conducted by GameQuarry, ranked Visual Concepts as the number one "most consistent" video game developer on the review aggregator website, with 50 out of their 72 games at the time having received an aggregated review score of 80/100 or higher.[12] In August 2010, Visual Concepts laid off 30 employees due to "the need for resource alignment and better efficiency".[13] In December 2018, at The Game Awards 2018, Greg Thomas was honored with the "Industry Icon" award for his 30-year services with Visual Concepts.
2K acquired HookBang's game division, which had worked with Visual Concepts on the NBA 2K games previously, in March 2021. The division was rebranded as Visual Concepts Austin to continue to support Visual Concepts.[14] In February 2024, an unknown number of employees at Visual Concepts Austin were affected by layoffs.[15]
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | College Hoops 2K6 | PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360 | |
| Major League Baseball 2K5 | PlayStation 2, Xbox | Assisted Kush Games | |
| Major League Baseball 2K5: World Series Edition | |||
| NBA 2K6 | PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360 | ||
| NHL 2K6 | Assisted Kush Games | ||
| 2006 | College Hoops 2K7 | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360 | |
| Major League Baseball 2K6 | GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360 | Assisted Kush Games | |
| NBA 2K7 | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360 | ||
| NHL 2K7 | Assisted Kush Games | ||
| 2007 | All-Pro Football 2K8 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | |
| College Hoops 2K8 | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | ||
| Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | ||
| Major League Baseball 2K7 | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360 | Assisted Kush Games | |
| NBA 2K8 | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | ||
| NHL 2K8 | Assisted 2K Los Angeles | ||
| The Bigs | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360 | Assisted Blue Castle Games | |
| 2008 | Major League Baseball 2K8 | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360 | Assisted 2K Los Angeles |
| NBA 2K9 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | ||
| NHL 2K9 | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 | ||
| 2009 | Major League Baseball 2K9 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | |
| NBA 2K10 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 | ||
| NBA 2K10: Draft Combine | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | ||
| NHL 2K10 | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 | ||
| 2010 | Major League Baseball 2K10 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | |
| NBA 2K11 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 | ||
| NHL 2K11 | Wii | ||
| 2011 | Major League Baseball 2K11 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 | |
| NBA 2K12 | |||
| 2012 | Major League Baseball 2K12 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | |
| MyNBA 2K | Android, iOS | ||
| NBA 2K13 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360 | ||
| NBA 2K MyLife | Facebook Platform | ||
| 2013 | Major League Baseball 2K13 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | |
| NBA 2K14 | Android, Fire OS, iOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | ||
| WWE 2K14 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | Assisted Yuke's | |
| 2014 | NBA 2K15 | Android, Fire OS, iOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | |
| NHL 2K | Android, iOS | Assisted Virtuos | |
| WWE 2K15 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Assisted Yuke's | |
| 2015 | NBA 2K16 | Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | |
| WWE 2K16 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Assisted Yuke's | |
| 2016 | NBA 2K17 | Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | |
| PlayStation 4, Xbox One | |||
| NBA 2KVR Experience | Android, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 | Assisted Specular Interactive | |
| WWE 2K17 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Assisted Yuke's | |
| 2017 | NBA 2K18 | Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | |
| PlayStation 4, Xbox One | |||
| WWE 2K18 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | Assisted Yuke's | |
| 2018 | NBA 2K19 | Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | |
| PlayStation 4, Xbox One | |||
| WWE 2K19 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | Assisted Yuke's | |
| 2019 | NBA 2K20 | Stadia, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | |
| WWE 2K20 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | ||
| 2020 | NBA 2K21 | Stadia, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | |
| 2021 | NBA 2K22 | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | |
| 2022 | WWE 2K22 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | |
| NBA 2K23 | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | ||
| 2023 | WWE 2K23 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | |
| Lego 2K Drive | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | ||
| NBA 2K24 | |||
| 2024 | WWE 2K24 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | |
| NBA 2K25[19] | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S |