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Take-Two, the parent company of GTA developer Rockstar Games, is undergoing a round of layoffs. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who was first to report, said the cuts are coming from Take-Two’s Private Division label “and other divisions.”
A spokesperson for Take-Two, Alan Lewis, said the impact on development teams specifically is “minimal,” suggesting the layoffs stem from non-development positions. Lewis said the move will help Take-Two “better align our organization with our long-term priorities.”
The job losses are not a surprise. Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick announced $50 million in cost-reductions in February, also confirming that layoffs were looming. “The program includes personnel, processes, infrastructure, and other areas, and will primarily focus on corporate and publishing functions,” Take-Two said.
“It’s not as though we guarantee lifetime employment sadly,” Zelnick said in February. “So there will be certain instances where jobs will be lost, but I think that will be pretty modest.”
Lewis said in a statement to GameSpot that the job losses mainly come from Take-Two’s US teams, though cuts are expected internationally, too. Lewis also reiterated that the job losses are “primarily” related to “corporate operations and label publishing,” as opposed to game development positions.
“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 organization with our long-term priorities,” Lewis said. “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 U.S. 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.”
Private Division is Take-Two’s label that funds and publishes smaller, indie-style titles. Among its upcoming projects is a new Lord of the Rings game from Weta’s video game studio. Private Division published games like The Outer Worlds, Disintegration, and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey.
Take-Two also owns and runs Rockstar Games and 2K Games, among other teams. Rockstar’s next big game is Grand Theft Auto 6, which recently suffered a massive leak.
