2K establishes AAA sports developer Small Axe Studios

2K has formally established Small Axe Studios in Vancouver, a new AAA team tasked with developing the publisher’s next sports franchise. The studio is being led by Aaron McHardy, who spent 15 years running the EA Sports FIFA team before leaving in 2021, and now serves as head of studio, vice president, and executive producer.

The leadership roster is stacked with sports-game veterans: Gary Paterson is head of design, Tom Pan heads operations, Mike Thompson leads engineering, Brent Breedveld is animation director, Karl Gryc is art director, John Cruz is technical art director, and Trisha MacWan heads HR. Several of those leaders also come from EA, which suggests 2K is leaning hard on proven sports-production experience rather than building from scratch.

Small Axe grew out of 2K Sports Lab, the R&D group formed in 2023 to explore future sports interactive entertainment. That makes this less of a greenfield experiment and more of a formalization of a pipeline that’s been incubating for a while. 2K says the studio blends startup energy with the scale of the publisher’s existing sports business, including NBA 2K, WWE 2K, and PGA Tour 2K.

For developers, the practical takeaway is that 2K is investing in a long-term sports initiative and hiring around it now. The exact franchise, scope, and release timing haven’t been disclosed, but the staffing mix points to a serious AAA production with broad needs across engineering, art, animation, and production.