Take-Two Interactive plans to put off 5 % of its workforce, or about 600 staff, by the tip of the yr, as reported in an SEC filing Tuesday. The studio can be canceling a number of in-development initiatives. These strikes are anticipated to value $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, a virtually $2 billion improve over the earlier yr. Just some weeks in the past, Take-Two agreed to buy Gearbox, the studio answerable for Borderlands, for $460 million. The corporate is making ready to launch Grand Theft Auto VI in 2025, a transfer that ought to usher in billions by itself.
Take-Two instituted a spherical of layoffs in 2023 throughout Private Division — the indie label behind Kerbal Area 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 to this point, and a complete of 10,500 business staff have been laid off in 2023. These are, depressingly, record–breaking figures. Sony laid off about 900 folks at PlayStation in February; Microsoft fired about 1,900 staff throughout its gaming division in January; Riot Games let go greater than 500 folks 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 “vital value discount program” coming this yr, however earlier than right now, 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 now have no present plans.”
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