Take-Two Interactive plans to put off 5 % of its workforce, or about 600 workers, by the top of the yr, as reported in an SEC filing Tuesday. The studio can also be canceling a number of in-development initiatives. These strikes are anticipated to price $160 million to $200 million to implement, and will lead to $165 million in annual financial savings for Take-Two.
Because the proprietor of Grand Theft Auto and the mother or father firm of Rockstar Video games, 2K, Non-public Division, Zynga and Gearbox, Take-Two is a juggernaut within the online game business. It reported $5.3 billion in income in 2023, an almost $2 billion improve over the earlier yr. Just some weeks in the past, Take-Two agreed to buy Gearbox, the studio accountable for Borderlands, for $460 million. The corporate is getting ready to launch Grand Theft Auto VI in 2025, a transfer that ought to herald billions by itself.
Take-Two instituted a spherical of layoffs in 2023 throughout Private Division — the indie label behind Kerbal House Program, The Outer Worlds and Rollerdrome — and different in-house studios.
An estimated 8,800 people within the online game business have misplaced their jobs in 2024 up to now, and a complete of 10,500 business workers had been laid off in 2023. These are, depressingly, record–breaking figures. Sony laid off about 900 individuals at PlayStation in February; Microsoft fired about 1,900 staff throughout its gaming division in January; Riot Games let go greater than 500 individuals that very same month — and these are simply among the most up-to-date AAA layoffs. Take-Two is now on the head of this record.
Take-Two executives have been hinting at a “important price discount program” coming this yr, however earlier than right this moment, they deflected questions on mass layoffs. In March, CEO Strauss Zelnick mentioned on an investor name, “The toughest factor to do is to put off colleagues and we’ve got no present plans.”
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