Take-Two Interactive, publisher of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, has just reduced its workforce by laying off around 5% of its staff.
The publisher, which is gearing up to release GTA 6 in 2025, cut roughly 5% of its entire staff as outlined by an 8-K SEC filing. It details a "cost reduction program" (referred to as the "Plan") that is set to be completed by the end of 2024, and "will reduce the Company's workforce by approximately 5%."
As per Statista, Take-Two Interactive employed 11,580 employees as of March 31, 2023, and the company has likely hired even more in the interim between then and now. Taking that into consideration, it's likely that Take-Two has laid off around 600 staff members.
In the filing, Take-Two also confirms it will be "eliminating several projects in development and streamlining its organizational structure, which will eliminate headcount and reduce future hiring needs."
It doesn't go on to say which projects have been canceled specifically, though it is worth mentioning that the next Bioshock game was reportedly being developed by Cloud Chamber, owned by 2K, who is in turn owned by Take-Two Interactive. Granted, we haven't seen anything of Bioshock 4 since its initial announcement close to half a decade ago, but that radio silence may now be permanent.
Overall, it's yet another devastating round of job cuts in an industry that's had far too many. Take-Two's layoffs follow in the footsteps of Sony shuttering its London Studio and cutting around 900 jobs worldwide. Several other studios have also undergone staff reductions in recent months, including Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures developer Supermassive Games as well as the 2K-owned Visual Concepts Austin. We hope that all affected are able to quickly land on their feet and find work elsewhere.
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