Take-Two is slowing down. Developers and journalists do not hide their outrage: “this is an absolutely cruel and incomprehensible decision”

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UPDATE

Service GamesIndustry.biz presented new details of the case. The information obtained shows that the layoffs affected more teams publishing their games under the Private Division banner – not only those located in Seattle (potentially Intercept Games and Roll7), but also in New York, Las Vegas and Munich.

The event is commented on by developers and journalists from around the world. “Corporations don’t care about employees” claims Michael Douse of Larian Studios. Programmer Del Walker (former Naughty Dog, Rocksteady, Respawn) draws attentionthat “you can create an indie game nominated for the Golden Joystick awards, which gets 9/10 in reviews and on Steam, wins at the BAFTA gala statuette for the best British game, is profitable, and the megacorporations will shut you down anyway.” Of course, he meant Rolledrome from the Roll7 studio. Game journalist Jake Green he announced even that it was an “absolutely cruel and incomprehensible decision.”

There is no shortage either Relatedthat last year’s raise for Strauss Zelnick (from $16 million to $42 million per year), the president of Take-Two, the owner of Private Division and Rockstar Games, would be enough to finance the activities of not only these two teams. Interestingly, the Intercept Games studio itself ensurethat it is continuing work on Kerbal Space Program 2 and will provide more information as soon as it can. Many players post words of encouragement under the post, including: Steam Review bombing of Kerbala 2 continues – users cite the reason for the studio being dissolved by Take-Two and “killing” the game (even though nothing has been officially confirmed yet).

Last month, Take-Two Interactive she announced a savings plan, as a result of which 5% of employees (approximately 600 people) were to lose their jobs. Now thanks to the agency Bloomberg we learn that the company has decided to reduce 70 positions in its offices in Seattle.

And although it has not been revealed which developers are involved, it is almost certain that some or even the entire team of Intercept Games studio is among those dismissed. The creators’ headquarters is located in Seattle Kerbal Space Program 2. The truthfulness of these assumptions is also proven by news about layoffs posted online by several studio employees.

For now, it is not known how Intercept Games’ alleged problems will affect the future of KSP2. The sequel to the popular simulator has been in early access since February 2023 and has had a difficult period behind it. The production’s debut was plagued by many problems, including terrible optimization. This translated into poor opinions players (currently, only 56% of users rate the simulator positively on Steam). Although since then the quality of Kerbal Space Program 2 has improvedthe game still needs a lot of work.

It is worth adding that last week Intercept Games it split details about the upcoming game update. However, it is not known whether it will be introduced in the light of current events. Nevertheless, a representative of Take-Two’s Private Division (publisher of KSP2 and other independent games) gave some hope to the game’s fans, who told the website’s editors Game Developerthat “Private Division continues to develop updates for Kerbal Space Program 2.”

At the time of writing, Intercept Games has not yet publicly commented on this situation. However, it is significant that job offers at website the studios have apparently been removed from Take-Two’s servers (that’s where the announcements were, but currently they can’t be loaded). It is worth adding that, according to Bloomberg, the job cuts at Take-Two will also include creators serii OlliOlli i Rollerdrome, i.e. Roll7. The studio is also to cease to exist.