Take-Two Interactive has become the latest tech-related company to announce layoffs. However, the parent company behind Rockstar Games, 2K Games, 2K Sports, Private Division, and Zynga, did not announce exactly how many of its employees were affected.
Gamespot received a statement from Take-Two spokesperson Alan Lewis about the layoffs. He stated:
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, 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.
Lewis added that it anticipates some layoffs in Take-Two"s operations outside of the US. He stated that these decisions were "necessary steps to position the company for another extended period of success."
In February, Take-Two announced as part of its quarterly financial results that it planned to make reductions that it said would result in $50 million in annual savings for the company. At least one of the publisher"s titles, the tactical RPG game Marvel: Midnight Suns from developer Firaxis that launched in the fall of 2022, was considered a sales disappointment.
A few weeks ago, it was announced that the Firaxis studio head Steve Martin had departed the studio after 27 years. Under its new head, Heather Hazen, Firaxis is now working on the next game in the long-running Civilization strategy series.
The company"s Private Division label recently launched Kerbal Space Program 2 in early access and another game, The Outer Worlds: Spacer"s Choice Edition, was released today. It has a number of unannounced games from several third party developers in the works. 2K Sports has the pro wrestling game WWE 2K23 coming in mid-March.
Rockstar Games has the next game in the massively popular Grand Theft Auto series under development but it"s likely not going to be out for a while. The same can be said for Judas, the first game from Take Two"s Ghost Story Games headed up by BioShock creator Ken Levine.