Take-Two is working on ‘significant cost reductions’ but has ‘no current plans’ for layoffs

09.02.2024 - 18:08 / videogameschronicle.com / Strauss Zelnick / Chris Scullion / Private Division

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says the company has “no current plans” for layoffs, despite the launch of a strategy to reduce costs across the company.

In a statement following the release of its financial results for the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal year, Zelnick stated that Take-Two was planning to drastically cut costs across the business.

“Our strategy is anchored in creativity, innovation, and efficiency,” Zelnick said. “We are currently working on a significant cost reduction program across our entire business to maximize our margins, while still investing for growth.

“These measures are incremental to, and more robust than, our prior cost reduction program, and we aim to achieve greater operating leverage as we roll out our outstanding release schedule.”

The “prior cost reduction program” Zelnick mentions was announced in February 2023 and saw the company trying to make annual savings of $50 million.

This resulted in a round of layoffs the following month, with staff at several divisions affected, including its indie publishing label Private Division.

However, speaking to IGN, Zelnick was asked if this new cost reduction program would also involve layoffs, as has been continuing to happen across the industry.

Zelnick replied that while the details of the program had still not been fully figured out – saying “we haven’t put any meat on the bones of that yet” – layoffs currently aren’t on the cards.

“I would just note that our biggest line item of expense is actually marketing,” he explained. “We do think we can optimise that. We also have third-party expenses, software, other vendors, supply services. And we always find opportunity there.

“The hardest thing to do is to lay off colleagues, and we have no current plans.”

In the year since Take-Two’s previous cost reduction program, layoffs have become a frequent occurence across the games industry. Job losses across the industry were widespread in 2023, with 9,000 layoffs estimated, and they don’t appear to be slowing this year.

The estimated total number of layoffs in 2024 so far has already reached 5,900 according to technical artist Farhan Noor’s website Game Industry Layoffs, which has been tracking confirmed games industry job cuts since the start of last year.