Posts Tagged: TakeTwo
Take-Two plans to lay off 5 percent of its employees by the end of 2024
Take-Two Interactive plans to lay off 5 percent of its workforce, or about 600 employees, by the end of the year, as reported in an SEC filing Tuesday. The studio is also canceling several in-development projects. These moves are expected to cost $ 160 million to $ 200 million to implement, and should result in $ 165 million in annual savings for Take-Two.
As the owner of Grand Theft Auto and the parent company of Rockstar Games, 2K, Private Division, Zynga and Gearbox, Take-Two is a juggernaut in the video game industry. It reported $ 5.3 billion in revenue in 2023, a nearly $ 2 billion increase over the previous year. Just a few weeks ago, Take-Two agreed to purchase Gearbox, the studio responsible for Borderlands, for $ 460 million. The company is preparing to release Grand Theft Auto VI in 2025, a move that should bring in billions on its own.
Take-Two instituted a round of layoffs in 2023 across Private Division — the indie label behind Kerbal Space Program, The Outer Worlds and Rollerdrome — and other in-house studios.
An estimated 8,800 people in the video game industry have lost their jobs in 2024 so far, and a total of 10,500 industry employees were laid off in 2023. These are, depressingly, record–breaking figures. Sony laid off about 900 people at PlayStation in February; Microsoft fired about 1,900 workers across its gaming division in January; Riot Games let go more than 500 people that same month — and these are just some of the most recent AAA layoffs. Take-Two is now at the head of this list.
Take-Two executives have been hinting at a "significant cost reduction program" coming this year, but before today, they deflected questions about mass layoffs. In March, CEO Strauss Zelnick said on an investor call, "The hardest thing to do is to lay off colleagues and we have no current plans."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/take-two-plans-to-lay-off-5-percent-of-its-employees-by-the-end-of-2024-235903990.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Take-Two is acquiring mobile game giant Zynga for $12.7 billion
PC gaming Giant Take-Two has announced that it's making a big move into mobile gaming with the acquisition of Zynga for a total price of approximately $ 12.7 billion. Take-Two already owns Rockstar Games, Codemasters and 2K, producing games like Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Bioshock and others. Zynga, meanwhile, produces well-known mobile titles like CSR Racing, FarmVille, and Words with Friends.
Take-Two said that the deal will result in $ 6.1 billion worth of 12-month pro-forma net bookings, meaning it will become one of the largest gaming companies in the world. "This strategic combination brings together our best-in-class console and PC franchises, with a market-leading, diversified mobile publishing platform that has a rich history of innovation and creativity," said Take-Two Chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick. The deal will also help Take-Two save about $ 100 million annually after two years.
Zynga itself was on an acquisition streak of late, having acquired the studio behind Torchlight 3early last year. Zynga has sometimes relied on acquisitions to find the hottest games in the notoriously fickle mobile gaming market. Still, Take-Two said that the mobile industry booked $ 136 billion 2021 and is currently growing at over 8 percent, so the money is there to be had. Mobile will now account for half of its net bookings (net amount of products and services sold digitally or sold-in physically), the company said.