2024-04-17 15:28:36
The American video game publisher Take-Two Interactive, which notably owns the very popular series Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and NBA 2Kannounced Tuesday the layoff of 5% of its staff, or several hundred people.
The group will eliminate current projects (unspecified at the moment) and thus reduce its human resources needs, to save money and increase its margins, according to what is explained in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US federal financial markets regulatory and supervisory agency.
[Le conseil d’administration de Take-Two] has approved a cost reduction plan aimed at identifying efficiencies across its operations and improving the company’s margins, while continuing to invest for growth, the company said.
She estimates that the cost of this plan is between 160 and 200 million US dollars (between 220.7 and 275.8 million Canadian dollars).
This announcement comes a few weeks following the company announced that it would acquire Gearbox Entertainment studios, known for the series Borderlands. Two of these studios are located in Quebec, one in Montreal and one in the old capital. The Swedish group Embracer, in the midst of financial restructuring, sold them for 460 million US dollars (634.4 million Canadian dollars).
Take-Two Interactive has an office in Toronto and one in Vancouver, as well as other studios across the country, including Cloud Chamber in Montreal, 2K Sports Lab in Vancouver and HB Studios in Halifax.
However, it is difficult to know whether the staff of these studios, or its productions, will be affected by these layoffs. Contacted by Radio-Canada, Take-Two Interactive refused to provide comments beyond the document filed.
On the Gearbox side, Pierre-André Déry, co-director of the Quebec and Montreal studios, affirms that the restructuring underway at Take-Two has no impact on Gearbox’s studios and projects. This also counts for the company’s Texas headquarters.
An industry in difficulty
Take-Two, which had 11,580 staff members a year ago, is the latest example in a long list of tech companies to announce massive layoffs in 2024, following a 2023 already marked by cutbacks. workforce in this sector.
According to the website Layoffs.fyi, 255 technology companies will lay off around 74,000 people in 2024.
The highly anticipated video game Grand Theft Auto VIthe new opus of the ultra-popular action game, is planned for next year.
The trailer released in December, showing chases, yacht parties, and for the first time a main female character, had been viewed more than 42 million times on YouTube almost seven hours following it was posted online .
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