Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has denied shutting down two studios beneath the corporate’s umbrella earlier this month, regardless of robust proof on the contrary.
Again in early Might, proof started to emerge that Kerbal House Program 2 developer Intercept Video games had been shut down, together with Intercept staff posting on LinkedIn about being laid off, in addition to a submitting saying the closure of a Take-Two subsidiary with round 70 staff.
Subsequently, Bloomberg then reported that OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome developer Roll7 was to be shut down, citing “documentation reviewed” by the publication.
In a latest name with IGN’s Rebekah Valentine, nonetheless, Zelnick mentioned that Take-Two “did not shutter these studios” and that the corporate “[hasn’t] shuttered something”.
Valentine says she then tried to press Zelnick on whether or not he was denying the experiences of Roll7 and Intercept’s shutdown, whereupon a Take-Two PR consultant mentioned the corporate’s price discount plan constituted a “5% discount in headcount”, however that no “label-by-label breakdown” had been given.
Following this alternate, Valentine requested Zelnick whether or not Non-public Division, the Take-Two-owned mother or father firm of each Roll7 and Intercept, was in bother, however Zelnick mentioned he “[doesn’t] suppose so”.
Zelnick goes on to say that Take-Two tends to go away bulletins to every particular person label, and that he isn’t “attempting to be cute or tough”, however that higher-ups “do not are likely to deliver these discussions into these conferences”.
As identified by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, this is not the primary time Take-Two and Zelnick have muddied the waters in terms of closing a studio beneath the corporate’s remit.
Schreier says that in 2013, BioShock 2 developer 2K Marin was shut down, however that neither Take-Two nor Strauss Zelnick would acknowledge the shutdown publicly and would act “in press releases as if the studio nonetheless existed, when in truth it didn’t”.
Since no official announcement has technically been made concerning the shutdown of Roll7 or Intercept, it is doable that Zelnick is being completely correct and that neither studio has been shut down, however given the proof on the contrary, that appears unlikely.
Elsewhere in Take-Two information, the corporate just lately revealed that the hotly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6, which was formally revealed final yr, might be launching in fall 2025. Watch this house for a mad scramble on different builders’ half to keep away from this window at any price.
