Founded in December 2007 as a spin-off from their parent, 2K, the company developed BioShock 2 (2010) and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (2013) before laying off or relocating all staff in October 2013 and silently being closed.

[1][2] The studio was spun out of 2K, a publishing subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, to develop a second installment in the BioShock series, following disputes with Ken Levine, the director of the first game.

[4] The studio dropped the 2K Marin label in November 2011 and returned to the previous 2K Australia name, this time for BioShock Infinite.

[12] Despite this, Take-Two Interactive's chairman and chief executive officer, Strauss Zelnick, stated in May 2014 that 2K Marin was still active, and that future BioShock games would be developed at the studio.

[13][14] 2K later announced in December 2019 that the new BioShock game was being developed by a new internal studio, Cloud Chamber, which had taken over the old 2K Marin spaces.