2024 has been a pretty rough year so far for various industries, with thousands of layoffs around the world. It’s been particularly rough for the media and gaming industries, as many of these layoffs happened over at several gaming conglomerates. Rockstar Games’ parent company T2 is next in the line as it has announced cost-cutting measures.
That’s right, Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two Interactive as announced that it’s laying off around 579 of the 11,580 employees as a cost-cutting measure. This move — that’ll see roughly five-percent of its global workforce leave the company — will impact several of its in-development projects.
In an SEC filing it published on Tuesday, the company said it’s “streamlining its organizational structure, which will eliminate headcount and reduce future hiring needs.” Its latest impact report didn’t explicitly mention which teams will be affected, or which projects will be scraped, but we hope it won’t affect the team at Rockstar Games working on GTA 6.
Take-Two noted that it will incur charges of up to $200 million to enact its “cost reduction program,” but it’s expected to save them over $165 million per year. It also added that its downsizing efforts are expected to “largely complete” by the end of 2024. Five percent of the workforce may not seem like a huge number, but it certainly adds up when you consider the massive number of employees T2 has.
Not like they don’t have money, though
Take-Two is looking to spend $460 on Borderlands’ developer
What really comes as a surprise, though, is the fact that Take-Two Interactive is currently in the process of acquiring Borderlands developer Gearbox from Embracer Group for $460 million. These massive conglomerates clearly seem to have their priorities set, and it, sadly, doesn’t seem to have any remorse for its employees.
It’s been a really tough time for the folks working in the games industry as Take-Two Interactive isn’t the only company to have reduced its workforce this year. In fact, there has been numerous layoffs in the tech industry in 2024, and even the biggest names like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc., have reduced their workforce.
