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Take-Two Interactive, parent company and publisher of Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto game series, is laying off staff as part of what it's calling a "cost reduction program" to "enhance the Company's margin profile while still investing for growth." 5% of Take-Two employees will lose their jobs, which is roughly 600 people.
The layoffs were revealed in a public filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday, which also states that Take-Two expects to spend up to $200 million total to finalize the layoffs, including up to $140 million of which would be related to "title cancellations," or cancelled projects. The filing didn't specify what games are being cancelled.
Take-Two is also planning to reduce its amount of office space overall even though Rockstar forced employees to return to the office this month—supposedly in an effort to prevent future leaks of its upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 game. The firm expects to spend up to $35 million on employee severance pay and other related costs, according to the filing.
Take-Two believes it will ultimately save about $165 million a year with the layoffs. The game publisher is a publicly traded company in the US with a current market cap of $24.83 billion. A report for its 2023 fiscal year states that the company made $5.35 billion in net revenue, a 52.6% increase from the prior year. At the time, Take-Two said this was primarily due to increased consumer spending across multiple games in its portfolio.
Unfortunately, layoffs have continuously swept across the video game industry and broader tech industry for years now. Thousands of developers have been impacted. Indie studios and massive publishers have cut their headcounts, with the likes of Sony PlayStation, Riot Games, Electronic Arts, Activision, Amazon's gaming division, and Epic Games all conducting substantial layoffs.
One layoffs tracker estimates 8,500 gaming industry employees lost their jobs in 2022, over 10,000 were laid off in 2023, and 8,800 have already lost their jobs this year alone.