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GRTV News - Take-Two lays off hundreds of staff

The massive publisher has done precisely what it stated it wouldn't do.

Audio transcription

"Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of GRTV News, today we're talking about a really big thing that's happened in the games industry again, it's something that we've been talking about all year, not so much as of late actually, the first quarter of the year it was very much overwhelmed with news stories like this and then it took a little bit of a break it seems but we're back at it again, it's Layoffs and it's a big company as well, we've seen it this year already, we've seen Microsoft do big layoffs or we've seen EA do big layoffs, now we're seeing Take-Two do big layoffs and this one hurts for a multitude of reasons as well which we'll dive into, so with that being the case let's jump into the news piece."

"So Take-Two lays off over 500 employees after previously having no plans to do so, in addition an unknown number of gaming projects have been shut down.
It wasn't that long ago that Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick stated that although they wanted to save money there were no plans to lay off employees, however this turned out not to be the case because not only is Take-Two now in the process of laying off employees they're also laying off a lot of people."

"As IGN writes Take-Two has announced that they plan to lay off 5% of their total number of employees which amounts to 579 employees, shows how big Take-Two is, not only that they're also shutting down an unknown number of projects in development, we don't know which projects have been affected or how the layoffs are distributed but we expect that messages from various developers will fill some of the void shortly."

"Take-Two has said that it is in the process of streamlining its organisational structure.
This is part of the so-called cost reduction plan that was initiated a year ago and as mentioned Zelnick has repeatedly stated that layoffs would not be part of the overall strategy and he says we haven't put any meat on the bones of that yet, I would just note that our biggest line item of expense is actually marketing, 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 lay off colleagues and we have no current plans, he said at the time.
So the reason why this absolutely sucks is not just because Take-Two have said beforehand that they're not going to lay off anybody and that they've done this, it's also because Take-Two is the publisher that is going to publish Grand Theft Auto 6."

"Now Grand Theft Auto 6 is probably going to be one of the most successful games we've ever seen and it's going to make a lot of money.
You know, Grand Theft Auto exists in that sort of mainstream environment that Call of Duty, FIFA, or EA Sports FC as they're called nowadays, those sort of games, those ones where it doesn't really matter, you know, what happens on them on a yearly basis or when they come out or different things like that."

"People dive and they flock to these games, like Pokemon as well, it's another one, everyone just flocks to Pokemon games and there's a new one out.
And Grand Theft Auto 6 is probably going to be one of the most successful video games of all time in a financial sense, judging by the attention that just the reveal trailer was like 90 seconds long had as well."

"So Take-Two have this massive income influx in the near future, we don't know when GTA 6 is going to actually arrive, you know, first quarter of 2025 is what many is expecting due to the way that they phrase things in their financial statements, but we don't actually know other than it's coming next year."

"But the point is that when it does arrive it's going to make Take-Two a lot of money and yet for some reason this company that has already said that marketing is their biggest expense has decided to lay off a lot of employees.
So it's a tough one to stomach for a multitude of reasons, it paints, once again it just paints a very grim picture of the industry that we work in here, so it's disappointing to see stories like this because you can't help but look at it and think that surely there was another way you could have reduced costs without putting nearly 600 people out of a job."

"And no doubt as well by the time that we get to the next financial year or at the end of the next financial year or maybe even we see the financial, the end of the 2023-2024 financial year fiscal year report, I'm no doubt we'll see that Straszelnik has received a very tasty bonus as well because that's what executives do, that's the way that they, you know, they get massive amounts of money for doing their job and you kind of look at it and think where's the balance here?
But yeah, the point is, without me rambling on any further about the point of layoffs, the point is that Take-Two has laid off a lot of people, about 5% of their workforce as part of sort of streamlining efforts as they call it, streamlining efforts, but yeah as we know more about what this is exactly including, you know, what projects are being cancelled as well, where the layoffs are coming from, which studios and publishers and whatnot they're affecting that are part of the Take-Two family, we'll be sure to keep you posted and updated so stay tuned for more on that, otherwise we'll be back tomorrow for the next GRTV News, so stay tuned for that and yeah, we'll see you on the next one, take care everyone."

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