Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of the massively popular Grand Theft Auto series, has announced a roughly five percent reduction of its workforce.
The company had 11,580 full-time employees as of March 2023, meaning around 579 jobs have been cut. As part of this restructuring, Take-Two says “several” projects have also been cancelled, although it’s unclear what any of them may have been. In addition to GTA, Take-Two’s portfolio includes NBA 2K, BioShock, Civilization and PGA Tour 2K (from Lunenberg, Nova Scotia’s HB Studios).
In an April 16th SEC filing, Take-Two says it’s “streamlining its organizational structure, which will eliminate headcount and reduce future hiring needs.” This is part of the company’s goal to reduce annual costs by at least $165 million USD (about $228 million CAD). Take-Two says it expects the downsizing efforts to be completed by December 31st, 2024.
Take-Two is the latest in a seemingly never-ending string of gaming companies that have laid off employees over the past year, including the likes of Xbox, PlayStation, EA and Unity. Altogether, nearly 20,000 people have lost their jobs between 2023 and 2024, and this year is already on pace to exceed last year in just four months.
Take-Two is a particularly notable example, however, given that it’s preparing to launch subsidiary Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI next year. GTA V is the second best-selling game of all time at nearly 200 million copies, so GTA VI is expected to make billions of dollars for Take-Two. Nonetheless, the company claims it needs to cut costs now by laying people off without, of course, taking other actions like executive pay cuts. In a February earnings call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick even claimed that there were “no current plans” to lay people off which, of course, quickly proved to be untrue.
Outside of laying hundreds off, Take-Two will also acquire Borderlands maker Gearbox Entertainment for $460 million USD (about $634 million CAD).
Image credit: Rockstar Games
Source: Take-Two Interactive
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