31st Union is a video game development studio of 2K based in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ) is the most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It is part of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan region, and is located about south of San Francisco. San Mateo border ...

, with a studio in

Valencia, Spain Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. It was founded in February 2019, then provisionally named 2K Silicon Valley, with

Sledgehammer Games Sledgehammer Games, Inc. is an American video game developer company formed in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The pair formerly worked at EA Redwood Shores and are responsible for the creation of ''Dead Space (2008 video game), Dead ...

co-founder Michael Condrey as its lead.

History

2K announced in February 2020 that the studio was officially named 31st Union, a nod to its San Francisco Bay Area roots and based on California being the 31st state to join the United States. Condrey said in the announcement that the studio's ideals reflected the diversity of California's and Silicon Valley's spirit of innovation in art, technology, and entertainment and cultural representation. Condrey had committed to establishing the culture of this studio on its founding, calling it "a clean canvas", and stressed the importance of diversity in the creative process. In addition to the new branding, 2K also announced plans to open a second studio for 31st Union in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The current Silicon Valley studio, in addition to Condrey, includes several dozen former Call of Duty / Sledgehammer Games and Dead Space / Visceral Games developers. The studio, as of February 2020, was working on an "ambitious and inspired new IP", and which was to be revealed within 2020, according to 2K. Michael Chu, previously the narrative director for

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...

's ''

Overwatch ''Overwatch'' (abbreviated as OW) is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. ''Overwatch (video game), Overwatch'' was released in 2016 with a success ...

'', joined 31st Union in July 2020 as their narrative director. On November 9, 2021, 2K acquired Elite3D, rebranding it as a 31st Union studio and a 2K Publishing arm. On January 19 2024, it was reported that 31st Union had let go a small number of employees. The company confirmed it had laid off "less than 10" employees. On October 17 2024, 31st Union and 2K announced ''Project Ethos'', a free-to-play roguelike hero third-person shooter, for PC,

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

References

External links

* 2019 establishments in California 2K (company) American companies established in 2019 Companies based in San Mateo, California Take-Two Interactive divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies based in California Video game companies established in 2019 Video game development companies {{US-videogame-company-stub