After announcing one of the biggest acquisitions in game industry history, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick named his company's biggest franchises. It contained some expected names, and one outlier – Midnight Club, which hasn't seen a new release since October 2008.
Speaking in an investor call, Zelnick was laying out how he wants new acquisition Zynga to help bring its biggest franchises to mobile. Before doing so, Zelnick named some of the company's key properties: "Our labels are home to some of the most iconic brands in the world, including Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Midnight Club, NBA 2K, BioShock, Borderlands, Sid Meier's Civilization, Mafia, and Kerbal Space Program."
It's a list of heavy-hitters from across Take-Two's developers, but Midnight Club feels a little out of place. Every name on that list has seen a new release in recent years, or is currently seeing development of a new one – except the Rockstar-developed Racing Series, which saw the release of Midnight Club: Los Angeles in 2008, before going dormant.
It's not clear exactly why Zelnick brought the game up in this context, although it's possible he's alluding to the series getting a mobile version in future. Within Zelnick's presentation to investors, Midnight Club is also included on a list of console and PC franchises that Take-Two sees as potential opportunities for mobile development.
That same set of games is also listed elsewhere in the presentation as one of the company's top franchises, having passed 5 million units sold – so it could be that its inclusion on the list is simply because it's a part of that bracket, rather than any future plans. Zelnick also understandably said that it was "early days" for collaborations between Take-Two and Zynga, meaning it's entirely possible there are no plans.
Either way, it was an unexpected addition to a list of games we're far more used to seeing from Take-Two - and it hasn't gone unnoticed by fans.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.