Take-Two Interactive, the company behind popular video game series such as Grand Theft Auto, has announced that 5 percent of its global workforce will be laid off, affecting around 600 employees.
This measure is part of a larger cost-cutting strategy with which the company aims to achieve savings of up to 200 million dollars by the end of 2024. The cuts are expected to save over 165 million dollars annually.
As part of these cost-cutting measures, several video games in development will be canceled and office space reduced, including probably several sports games and mobile games from the subsidiary Zynga.
The subsidiary label Private Division, known for games such as “The Outer Worlds” and “Kerbal Space Program 2”, is particularly affected by the redundancies. These cuts are being made despite recent periods of strong growth, as the company wants to adapt its structure to long-term strategic goals.
This development at Take-Two is representative of a larger trend in the technology and games industry, where many companies are taking similar cost-cutting measures in response to rapid growth and changing market conditions.
It is still unclear whether the redundancies will also affect the subsidiary Rockstar Games, which is currently working on GTA 6. The open-world title is currently scheduled for release in 2025.
It is also worth noting that Take-Two recently bought the development studio Gearbox Software from Embracer for around 460 million dollars, which indicates that the company is not doing badly financially. However, as a publicly traded company, Take-Two is under pressure from investors to show steady growth and increasing profits.
