Take-Two CEO denies closing two studios, refuses to elaborate

As a part of its cost reduction plans, Take-Two is reportedly shutting down two studios under its Private Division publishing company: Intercept Games and Roll7. Take-Two, however, seems like it won’t confirm these closures at all.

In response to IGN, when asked about the closures during the earnings call on May 16, Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick said the company didn’t shut down those studios. “We didn’t shutter those studios, to be clear. And we are always looking at our release schedule across all of our studios to make sure that it makes sense. So we are being very judicious because we are in the middle of a cost reduction program that we’ve already concluded and are now fully rolling out,” Zelnick said, adding that while the company is saving $165 million in costs, it hasn’t shuttered anything.

The PR representative clarified that the company announced a cost reduction plan last month, which amounts to approximately a 5 percent reduction in headcount, or 550 employees, but didn’t give a “label-by-label breakdown of what that looks like,” refusing to provide any additional details on whether the studios exist or not.

A note shared by Jason Schreier on May 16 following the original report said that due to budget cuts for signing new game prototypes and several titles that didn’t achieve their potential, the company is under pressure to “find efficiencies and be profitable,” proposing to shut down the Roll7 studio. The original report also mentioned Take-Two plans to lay off 70 people and close an office in Seattle, where Intercept Games is based, with roughly the same number of employees.

As pointed out by IGN, Take-Two could’ve merged these studios with Private Division, as according to the previous report from Game Developer, the label plans to further support Kerbal Space Program 2, a game developed by Intercept Games.

Regardless of what happens with these studios, these layoffs are a massive hit to Take-Two, especially after it was announced there were no plans for layoffs within the company, continuing another tough year for game developers.