News

Take-Two announces round of layoffs

The layoffs will primarily affect employees at Private Division

Take-Two announces round of layoffs

Take-Two has announced a round of layoffs across its Private Division label and other parts of the company, reports Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier on Twitter.

“Video game publisher Take-Two is laying people off today in its Private Division label and other divisions, sources tell Bloomberg. Spokesman Alan Lewis says the cuts "will better align our organisation with our long-term priorities" and that the impact on dev teams is "minimal."

In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, a spokesperson for the company said "We can confirm that there have been targeted reductions in our US teams, primarily in corporate operations and label publishing, which will better align our organisation with our long-term priorities. We continue to make strategic investments in our talent and technology to deliver our long-term pipeline and the impact of these changes on our US development teams has been minimal.

"Outside of the US, we have begun procedures in compliance with local law that we anticipate may result in similar reductions. Take-Two has experienced exponential growth in recent years, and we are taking these necessary steps to position the company for another extended period of success.”

A disturbing trend

2022 was a corrective year for the market, with many companies reporting declines in revenue following the unprecedented Covid boom, coupled with global macroeconomic factors such as the ongoing war in Ukraine and regulatory changes worldwide. This saw many companies resort to layoffs in order to maintain profitability.

Take-Two first raised the possibility of layoffs last month as part of a cost reduction program, following the company missing its third quarter revenue and bookings forecasts. Take-Two aimed to cut $50 million of annual spending, with CEO Strauss Zelnick telling GamesIndustry.biz “We continue to support and build our development teams, and where we have overhead, we have to be very diligent about looking at the overhead."
"We don't expect any kind of broad-based reduction in force. We are going department by department and trying to drive efficiency."

Last week, reports emerged that Sony is eyeing up an acquisition of Take-Two.

 


Tags:
Staff Writer

Lewis Rees is a journalist, author, and escape room enthusiast based in South Wales. He got his degree in Film and Video from the University of Glamorgan. He's been a gamer all his life.