Take-Two Interactive, the publisher behind Grand Theft Auto, is joining the companies laying off employees in 2024. According to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the company’s board of directors today approved a cost-reduction plan that would reduce its workforce by 5%. Given the total number of employees at Take-Two, this means that the company would likely layoff around 600 employees.
In addition to the layoffs, the cost-reduction plan would require “eliminating several projects in development and streamlining its organizational structure.” There’s no word on which projects the company plans to cancel, but one could be safe in assuming the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI is safe. Take-Two reports to the SEC that it believes it will incur $160-200 million as a result of this plan, but that it expects to save $165 million.
The cost-reduction plan doesn’t come as a complete surprise: Take-Two mentioned in its last financial report that it planned such measures for the future — however, it didn’t specify what this would entail. At the time, CEO Strauss Zelnick said that other forms of cost reduction (besides staffing layoffs) would include lower marketing and user acquisition costs. Take-Two is also currently in the process of acquiring Gearbox Software from Embracer Group.
Take-Two joins dozens of companies in the games industry who have laid off staff in the last 16 months. The largest layoffs have come from the likes of Microsoft, Sony, Unity, Epic and many others. At the last count from videogamelayoffs.com, a site that tracks said job losses in the industry, the estimated total of jobs lost in 2024 so far is 8,800, and that’s before the Take-Two numbers are taken into account.