Take-Two Interactive, the gaming holding behind popular franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead, Civilization, and Bioshock, plans to fire 5% of its employees as well as cancel several upcoming projects, Bloomberg reports.
With approximately 11,500 full-time employees, a 5% reduction means nearly 600 staff members will be laid off.
The downsizing may come as a shock to the affected staff, especially since CEO Strauss Zelnick told IGN that Take-Two had “no current plans” for layoffs as recently as February of this year.
Overall, however, the layoffs cannot be described as particularly startling, but rather the latest symptom of a slumping industry.
The gaming industry has seen increasing layoffs, with a record set in 2022 followed by a nearly 20% increase in 2023, totaling about 10,500 layoffs, according to Eurogamer; projections for 2024, furthermore, exceed 7,500 layoffs.
In January alone, Microsoft dismissed 1,900 employees at its gaming division.
This latest move by Take-Two Interactive underscores the severe ongoing economic challenges in the gaming industry, despite the historical success of its flagship franchises.
Despite reports of layoffs, the company’s shares opened to a modest increase of around 1% on Wednesday.