TDK Mediactive was a brand name given to two multimedia divisions of Japanese multinationalelectronics company TDK; the first - TDK Mediactive Europe was a subsidiary of TDK Recording Media Europe that dealt with the distribution of music DVDs and the publication of video games and software, while the other - TDK Mediactive, Inc. was solely a video game publisher and a rebranding of developer/publisher Sound Source Interactive. Both companies were unaffiliated with one another in management aside from licensing each other's titles for each market they operated under, and went their separate ways following changes in ownership.
TDK Mediactive Europe was a division of TDK Recording Media Europe founded in 1999[1] that published video games, software and DVDs under the TDK brand.[2][3]
In April 2000, TDK Mediactive Europe announced they would secure exclusive international publishing rights to Sound Source Interactive's products.[4] This continued after the purchase of the company by TDK in September, with TDK Mediactive Europe became the exclusive European Publishing partner for technology and content licenses held by TDK Mediactive, Inc., which included publication and localization.[5] However, TDK Mediactive Europe continued to publish and distribute their own titles, such as Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade.[6]
On September 6, 2001, TDK Mediactive Europe supplied an exclusive North American licensing agreement to allow TDK Mediactive, Inc. to publish video games based on Mercedes-Benz.[7]
On March 15, 2002, the company signed a deal with O3 Games to publish Templar.[8] In June, it moved from Bascharage, Luxembourg, to Ratingen, Germany, where TDK Recording Media Europe was already located.[9]
On May 4, 2005, TDK Mediactive Europe signed a publishing deal with Playlogic Entertainment to allow the latter to publish their existing video game titles.[10] The fate of the TDK Mediactive Europe company itself is currently unknown, although the company's website remains open.[11]
TDK Mediactive, Inc. (formerly Sound Source Interactive, Inc., later renamed Take-Two Licensing, Inc.) was an American video game publisher based in Westlake Village, California. Founded as Sound Source Interactive by Vincent Bitetti in March 1990, the company acquired BWT Labs in March 1998. In September 2000, the company was acquired by TDK and became TDK Mediactive. Take-Two Interactive acquired the company's North American operations in September 2003, renaming itself as Take-Two Licensing the following December. With the foundation of Take-Two Interactive's 2K Games label in January 2005, Take-Two Licensing was effectively folded into the new subsidiary.
On September 11, 2000, TDK acquired a 72% controlling stake in Sound Source Interactive, with an initial investment of US$1.425 million, followed by another of US$3.575 million, totaling to US$5 million.[32] The buyout resulted in Sound Source rebranding under the TDK Mediactive name, with the company's founder, Vincent Bitetti, remaining chief executive officer and Shin Tanabe, President of TDK Recording Media Europe and the European division of TDK Mediactive, becoming the publisher's chief operating officer.[33] As TDK Mediactive, the company published various video games, of which many based on licensed properties.[34] With this, TDK inherited Sound Source's existing licenses with Universal Pictures for The Land Before Time and The Harvey Entertainment Company for the Harvey Comics characters, among others.
On December 20, 2000, the company signed an exclusive video game licensing deal with DreamWorks SKG to produce and publish games based on Shrek.[35]
On April 13, 2001, the company signed a five-year deal with clothing brand No Limits to publish games based on the license.[36] At E3 2001, the company secured the video game licensing rights to RoboTech from Mattel.[37] The company later signed a deal with The Beanstalk Group to produce games based on Dinotopia. In November 2001, the company announced to publish games for the GameCube.[38] This was followed with a licensing agreement from DC to produce video games based on Aquaman in December.[39]
In January 2003, the company purchased the video game licensing rights to the UFC from Crave Entertainment.[45] May 2003, the company announced their Shrek 2 video game tie-in would be a co-publishing collaboration with Activision.[46][47]
On September 3, 2003, TDK Mediactive, Inc. announced that they were to be acquired by Take-Two Interactive for an estimated US$22.7 million.[48][49] The transaction was finalized on December 2, 2003, with 23,005,885 shares, valued at US$12.6 million, and another US$200,000 in cash awarded to TDK.[50]
Afterwards, Take-Two rebranded TDK Mediactive, Inc. as Take-Two Licensing, Inc. and received all their licenses except for the Shrek license, which was fully obtained Activision after they signed a new deal with DreamWorks, with Activision terminating its previous existing licensing agreement they previously had with TDK for Shrek 2 games.[51][52]
On January 25, 2005, Take-Two Interactive announced the opening of publishing label 2K Games, into which Take-Two Licensing was folded.[53]
