Founded in 1988, Visual Concepts Entertainment is responsible for the full development and marketing of the critically-acclaimed 2K Sports line of videogames. Formerly an independent development studio working on titles such as Interplay’s Clay Fighter, the action game ONE, and early versions of Electronic Arts’ Madden NFL, Visual Concepts formed a relationship with publisher SEGA and was picked up by SEGA to build a solid foundation of sports titles for the launch of the SEGA Dreamcast. Visual Concepts created two action games for the Dreamcast (Floigan Brothers and Ooga Booga), but was largely dedicated to its sports franchises and was later restructured within the company to develop SEGA Sports titles exclusively, with games across all sports genres (developed by and/or managed through production by Visual Concepts) for the Dreamcast and later for multiple gaming platforms.
Despite the success of the SEGA Sports franchises, SEGA withdrew from sports publishing after rival Electronic Arts locked up the NFL and ESPN licenses in late 2004/early 2005. SEGA sold Visual Concepts and its Kush Games subsidiary to Take Two for $24 million in January 2005, and Visual Concepts’ ongoing sports franchises (which included basketball, hockey and baseball, amongst others) were put under a new umbrella, 2K Sports. Visual Concepts continues to develop its respected brand of sports videogames for Take Two Interactive and is the central development studio under the 2K Sports brand.
