Client Spotlight | Mindera and 2K

Client Spotlight | Mindera and 2K

Overview

We were delighted to welcome 2K, the leading video game publisher and one of our trusted partners, to our Aveiro office in Portugal recently. We have been working closely with 2K for four years, and it was brilliant to meet some of our Portugal team that has been working with them side by side for years across our global locations. On the heels of this meeting, we look forward to connecting with them in person every 6 months to review performance, share ideas, collaborate on future work and have some fun, too!

The visit marked the culmination of a project we've been partnering with 2K closely on which saw our Mindera team work on a solution to build out 2K’s Shared Platform - a solution built to support core in-game features and streamline end-to-end game development processes.

About 2K

Founded in 2005, 2K develops and publishes interactive entertainment for video game consoles, personal computers, and mobile devices, with product availability including physical retail and digital download. The Company is home to many talented development studios, including Visual Concepts, Firaxis Games, Hangar 13, Cat Daddy Games, 31st Union, Cloud Chamber and HB Studios. 2K’s portfolio currently includes several AAA, sports and entertainment brands, including global powerhouse NBA®️ 2K; renowned BioShock®️, Borderlands®️, Mafia, Sid Meier’s Civilization®️ and XCOM®️ brands; popular WWE®️ 2K and WWE®️ SuperCard franchises, TopSpin®️ as well as the critically and commercially acclaimed PGA TOUR®️ 2K.

Their Objective

When 2K approached Mindera, they were looking for expert support to help streamline processes for integrating new in-game features into existing games, using a framework allowing developers to reuse standard game components and backend services.

2K required a robust solution to make these processes repeatable through a singular platform and reduce the amount of time and cost it took to go from the inception of game development all the way through to launch.

Our Approach

To meet this objective, our experts decided to establish a Shared Platform which offers a comprehensive set of microservices which enable game developers to explore, select, combine, and preview 2K services all in one place.

The initial aim was to support the core in-game features to improve player experience. This acted as a single engine that allowed 2K’s internal teams to integrate and re-use core features for multiple end-to-end cycles. As a result, we were able to streamline the release process, reducing complexity and improving efficiency.

With the power and expertise of over 100 Mindera engineers, we developed this platform to service 2K’s in-house consumers, internal and external partners, and unaffiliated developers. The DNA Shared Platform included the following features:

• Identity management
• Customer portal
• Developer community portal, including documentation and sandbox capabilities
• Game studio administration portal, with a robust CMS and rich content-creation and publishing features
• Commerce
• Online MultiPlayer

Over the course of this partnership, the Shared Platform has evolved to extend its capability to features including push notifications, multiplayer capability and many more.

The Results

We are already seeing the impact on user experience as the platform has supported a number of 2K game releases, such as LEGO 2K Drive, WWE 2K24, TopSpin 2K25, and continues to support a pipeline of future game titles.

Our partnership with 2K has resulted in a world-class solution, enabling 2K to build and maintain critical gaming services that support numerous game titles developed by multiple game studios via their proprietary technology. We are proud to be a trusted partner with such an iconic company.

What’s next? Revolutionizing gaming

Our next challenge is to scale up the capabilities of the Shared Platform to support and improve the user experience of millions of 2K game players.

Through this next phase, we aim to help 2K promote player retention and drive an increase in general gamer playing time.

Mindera’s Gaming Technology Lead, Andrew Winstanley, comments:

“We are delighted to be a part of 2K’s journey in revolutionising gaming, and to have made a positive difference to their business through our partnership. I am extremely proud of Mindera’s talented and dedicated team of engineers and technology and gaming experts, who are bringing this solution to life.

At Mindera, we are passionate about being at the forefront of gaming technology. The Shared Platform is a testament to the countless hours of work and dedication our team has committed to streamlining the end-to-end cycles of 2K’s game developments. We’re excited to see how our relationship with 2K develops over time as we begin to shift our efforts towards tailoring consumers’ gaming experience.”

2K’s Chief Technology Officer, Tim Morrow, added:

“Mindera is a trusted development partner, supporting our engineering teams in building a world-class gaming shared platform that powers many of 2K’s iconic titles. Over the last few years, we have built an incredible set of services together that enable our games to better connect with players and reduce the investments required to launch new titles.”