The Senior Development Director of the original Dead Space is heading a new studio under Take-Two's 2K Games development umbrella, it was announced Monday morning. Michael Condrey, who is best known for co-founding Sledgehammer games with Visceral Games colleague Glen Schofield, will become the president of this new 2K Games studio and will be responsible for building the development team and leading it in the creation of its first project.

From Dead Space to Sledgehammer's shooters Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Call of Duty: WW2, Condrey has proven himself as a strong leader in game development, inspiring 2K Games to invite him on to lead their new studio's future. 2K president Davil Ismailer elaborates:

"Michael’s unparalleled creative, production and leadership accolades are well-documented and deserved. We are greatly inspired not only by his passion but the potential for his new studio to complement our existing portfolio and development expertise. We welcome Michael to the 2K family and look forward to seeing our new Silicon Valley studio flourish in the months and years to come."

In a prepared statement, Condrey described the necessity of a "team driven by the pursuit of quality and the empowerment of an independent studio model" as the recipe for the creation of great games. He then describes why 2K Games is the best place for him to pursue the development of such games:

"2K’s studios have creative and technical autonomy, backed by a world-class infrastructure of support, and that offers the perfect recipe to build a new studio and craft experiences that will lead the next generation of gaming for fans everywhere."

The promise of one of the creators of Dead Space leading a major studio with both creative and technical autonomy is certainly exciting. It definitely has to be freeing for Condrey following eight years at Activision making Call of Duty.

Condrey's experience reaches back further than Dead Space, of course. He began his career at Electronic Arts as a game tester on Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit in 1998, before serving as a producer on FIFA '99 and eventually the James Bond games The World is Not Enough and James Bond 007: Nightfire. Condrey got his first director gig on James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing. Dead Space was his third project as a director and his last at EA before leaving to open Sledgehammer Games.

Oddly enough, Condrey's departure from Activision was not widely reported, despite his co-founder partner Schofield publically leaving the company in 2018. Both Condrey and Schofield were known to be leaving their Sledgehammer leadership roles as of early 2018, but were said to be taking on other projects within Activision. Clearly, that's not the case. It's still noteworthy that the first we're hearing of Condrey leaving Activision is in a report announcing his new position at 2K Games.

Whatever 2K Silicon Valley and Condrey are working on, it's unlikely that it'll be revealed or announced any time soon. With luck, perhaps there will be reporting on some of the studio's hires. Who it picks up to lead the project creatively could say a lot about what the studio's goals are and what kinds of games it will make. With Condrey involved, though, it's probably a safe bet to assume a shooter is in the works.