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 submitting Tuesday. The studio can also be canceling a number of in-development tasks. 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 dad or mum firm of Rockstar Video games, 2K, Personal 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. Only a few weeks in the past, Take-Two agreed to buy Gearbox, the studio liable for Borderlands, for $460 million. The corporate is getting 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 Personal Division — the indie label behind Kerbal Area Program, The Outer Worlds and Rollerdrome — and different in-house studios.
An estimated 8,800 individuals within the online game business have misplaced their jobs in 2024 to this point, 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 Video 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 checklist.
Take-Two executives have been hinting at a “important price discount program” coming this yr, however earlier than at the 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 no present plans.”