Take-Two Interactive plans to cut 5 percent of its workforce, or about 600 jobs, by the end of the year. SEC filing Tuesday. The studio is also canceling several projects in development. These moves are expected to cost $160-200 million to implement and should result in annual savings of $165 million for Take-Two.
Take-Two, the owner of Grand Theft Auto and the parent company of Rockstar Games, 2K, Private Division, Zynga, and Gearbox, is a juggernaut in the video game industry. In 2023, it generated revenue of $5.3 billion, which is an increase of about $2 billion from the previous year. Just a few weeks ago, Take-Two agreed to buy it Transmission, the studio responsible for Borderlands, for $460 million. The company is preparing to launch Grand Theft Auto VI A move that should bring in billions in 2025.
Take-Two implemented a series of cuts in 2023 Private section — the indie label behind Kerbal Space Program, Outer worlds and Rollerdrome — and other in-house studios.
Moment It is estimated that there are 8,800 people the video game industry has lost jobs so far in 2024 and a total of 10,500 industry workers have been laid off in 2023. These are sad. record–breakage numbers. Sony it laid off nearly 900 people at PlayStation in February; Microsoft In January, it laid off about 1,900 workers in its gaming division; Riot Games let go of more than 500 people that month — and those are just a few of AAA’s most recent layoffs. Take-Two is now at the top of this list.
Take-Iki has been the managers indicates a “significant cost-cutting program” is coming this year, but before today they deflected questions about mass layoffs. In March, CEO Strauss Zelnick said during an investor call: “The hardest thing is to lay off colleagues, and we don’t have any current plans.”
