Well, do you remember that earlier this month, Take-Two shut down Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games and Roll7 (the studio behind Rollerdrome and OlliOlli World)? Well, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick now says it’s “not closing” the studios, leaving us all wondering if they still, uh, actually exist.
Yes, it’s a thing. In case you weren’t aware, internal Roll7 documents and notices filed with the Washington State Department of Employment Security reportedly hinted that the closure was part of a layoff plan that Take-Two revealed in an SEC filing in April. Of course, industry insiders and gamers alike weren’t too happy to hear either piece of news, but Zelnick now seems to have some doubts about what actually happened in a rather confusing way.
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During Take-Two’s earnings call yesterday, IGN asked why Intercept and Roll7 were apparently shut down, and in response to IGN’s query, the CEO said the following:
“To be clear, we’re not closing these studios. We’re always looking at the release schedule across all the studios to make sure it makes sense. So we’re very smart because we’re in the midst of the costs we’ve completed and are working on across the board As part of the cuts we have announced, we will save $165 million in current and future costs, but we have not stopped any of our plans.”
When asked if this response meant the company was denying the reports, a Take-Two PR representative responded: “What we are saying is that in the 8-K filing we issued, we talked about cost reduction plans of approximately 5% headcount reduction globally, but we did not detail the specifics on a br and-by-brand basis.”
So, yes, it looks like Take-Two is saying it’s cutting the costs it outlines, but isn’t actually closing the studio, despite the evidence — Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier tells Roll7 This was stated in a note from employees, and a clip has now been shared on Twitter in response to Zelnick’s comments – suggesting that closure proceedings are either already underway, or at least to some degree ongoing.
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What does it mean? We, like many others, are trying to make sense of it all. The studio somehow being merged into the private sector still seems like a possible explanation, but that might be an odd way for us to know this.
Regardless, this isn’t the first time the studio has been stuck in a weird verbal purgatory with Take-Two, with BioShock 2 developer 2K Marin still seemingly not receiving official closure recognition from the publisher, despite reports that it was almost closed in 2013 All closed.
Thankfully, in a report accompanying the call, Take-Two was less cryptic when it came to GTA 6’s release window, which has been narrowed to fall 2025.
