Take-Two will shut down OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome studio Roll7 as well as Kerbal Space Program team Intercept Games as it looks to cut five per cent of its workforce. The news was revealed by Bloomberg after the outlet obtained documentation indicating Roll7 will close and offer severance agreements to staff. Meanwhile, a notice has been filed with the Washington State Employment Security Department to close a Seattle office, where Intercept Games is based.
Both developers fall under the Private Division label — which is owned by Take-Two — and it's reported layoffs have hit that company too.
The news follows confirmation from Take-Two it plans to let go of 600 full-time workers to save $165 million annually, which was shared a few weeks ago. That is despite making billions upon billions of dollars as a result of the GTA series.
[source bloomberg.com]
Comments 42
Sigh. This is just really, really crap. How much money do you really save by closing a small but excellent developer in Roll7? Especially when you own the GTA series. Crap.
Oh for f**k’s sake, Roll7 were an excellent studio. Talent doesn’t mean a thing anymore.
man, the way things have been going these last several years... we're living through the dark age of gaming, folks
I hate this timeline. AAA gaming has become cancerous to the industry at large.
Roll7 especially is a huge loss. I didn’t play Olli Olli world but Rollerdrome was so fun. Very disappointing.
Roll7 should have put shark cards in Rollerdrome.
Kyle’s never heard such bullsh*t
Well that really sucks 😡
They need to "save" that 165 mil because they need to increase those shareholder returns at all cost.
Horrible.
How much does Take-Two's CEO make again?
What a shame. Hate seeing small dev teams like this cut by giant publishers.
Screw making fun, unique games. It's all about Shark Cards and profit.
'Instead of loving people and using money, people often love money and use people'
This is why these indie devs should not let themselves be bought by these conglomerate corporations. THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. Make what money you can from your small titles and be happy. Stop being blinded by 💰💰
@ShogunRok President and CEO were each paid 72million last year.🤷
That's 144/165m right there. But i am sure the employees deserved those lay offs and those 2 do very impressive work worth all that. 😂
They don't even know what to do with GTA anymore. I don't even care if it's the best game ever...more than 10 years for a new GTA with the absurd amounts of money they MILK out of GTA Online for years, it's ridiculous.
Now with that absurd amount of money, they simply close small studios. What a greedy shaddy corporation Take Two is...
This is now officially depressing!
Absolutely disgusting. The scumbags at the top ruining other people's lives because literally billions of dollars somehow still isn't enough for these pigs.
Insult to injury is that this isn’t a market to “bounce back” in. Who’s hiring?
Roll7 should never have signed up with TakeTwo
Western developers need to look at Japanese development, smaller teams, cheaper development costs(not trying to push the envelope in graphics) and very few layoffs but games with great gameplay and very few nickel and dime you. 2K, EA, Ubi, WB are all in shambles currently and it will take years for them to bounce back
Take Two is trash and no one cares, yikes. People will buy GTA6 like water and will keep watching shi*** GTA role play.
I still remember when Kerbal Space Program was one of the most successful stories of game development in Mexico and then ... TT bought the ip.
@Vivisapprentice That’s literally what at least Roll7 was. A smaller dev team that made cheaper but still high quality games. It’s just corporate greed from the Take Two higher ups
@LiamCroft Exactly. Shut them down because they weren't profitable enough but why does that matter when you're worth billions? Take 2 you absolute *****.
@Vivisapprentice The Japanese learned from the struggles that they went through during the move to HD gaming during the Xbox 360/PS3 gen. So many studios and teams were either closing, or going through financial struggles... We had big names like Keiji Inafune stating that "Everyone's making awful games - Japan is at least five years behind", and that "Japan is isolated in the gaming world. If something doesn't change, we're doomed.", stressing the need for Japanese developers to bring in Western approaches to game development to make a comeback.
Now here we are 10+ years later with the Japanese video games industry in a somewhat healthy place. Now saying that Western developers should be looking at Japanese teams.
I guess it's naive to try and suggest that people vote with their wallets and try to not support Take Two? But who am I kidding — GTA will make absolute bank regardless
This socks, Roll7 is a great little studio. Rollerdrome and OlliOlli World were both excellent games. I have them both installed on my PS5 still, although I'll admit I didn't pay for either since they were on Plus.
In the music industry, a small part of the billions made with Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber are invested in jazz and classical music, domains that are barely making money. Why it's not the case with the big corporations in the gaming industry?
So they went and acquired Gearbox but then they set to fire other developers to make up for it?
This is when the government needs to step in.
That sucks. I love the OlliOlli series.
What a pitiful joke, sigh..
Oh poor take2, hope they survive, and ceos can afford their next ferraris..
Such a shame, was looking forward to kerbal 2 really. I hope the devs will regroup and can keep the ip.
Lame really, they buy off smaller studios and kill them off.
I dont care for gta much too, just mindless dribble.
@Deoxyr1bose yes, unfortunately for them they were a indie owned by a corporate.
A lot of indies will struggle to get funding the next few years as well which will suck
Within 5 years, the only video games that are going to exist will be Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Grand Theft Auto
Oh ***** you, Take Two.
This is the unsustainably of rampant capitalism rearing its head again. This ridiculous idea that profits remaining stable isn’t good enough, that it always has to be “higher profit margins” year on year or quarter on quarter. If every company out there follows that absurd model “year on year” by firing staff, leaving people unemployed, then how the hell do they expect people are gonna afford whatever prices you’re hiking or product you’re shilling? Not just gaming, it’s everything lately. Capitalism and the pursuit of ever higher profits is unsustainable. Always has been, we were just fooled for a time before the greedy hedgefunders and rothschild types out there sucked up too great a share and made the global economy too top heavy
All that talent, experience, and more vitally, synergy.. all thrown to the wind. Stinks.
Strauss Zelnick will undoubtedly still enjoy his regular bonus pay cheque much like Bobby Kotick on his annual Activision Blizzard purges.🙄
So much for Private Division being the "Indie Arm" of the Take-two business...make a successful game,get bought out allegedly on the pretence of stability & guaranteed finance,next thing find your IP rights gone & lights turned off & locks changed at the office!
But one only has to look at how veterans of Rockstar got churned or burned out,& the older games get contracted out to the likes of Grove Street Games for substandard "remasters" & single player dlc cancelled to see Take-two's priorities these days!😑
Absolutely disgusting. Especially as their two top executives doubled their salaries in 2023 and took home $72.3 million between them.
I hope Roll7 are able to reform elsewhere as they are a shining light in game dev. Someone pick them up. Thoughts to all involved
There's something deeply, deeply wrong with the entire industry if a studio like Roll7 gets closed down. They only released 2 of the highest rated indie games of 2022. No idea what the sales numbers were but surely it can't have been that bad that the entire studio had to shut down?
It's just another source of creativity that is now lost to the industry, when it is so utterly unnecessary. Had Take Two decided to be a little less greedy or pay a couple million less to their executives, we'd get to enjoy future output from a fantastic indie studio. It's such a frustrating and sad state of affairs.
Surely you should be trying to make those 5% reductions across the board rather than pinpointing two entire studios and shutting them down.
Although I believe Intercept are a studio that was spun up to support Kerbal and help with Kerbal 2 and are directly responsible for Kerbal.
Take Two increased the salary of two of their top executives (likely CEO + 1 other) by 100% in 2023 vs. 2022. Their combined salaries rose to $72,350,718. Or in other words: An increase of 36m in one year for two individuals.
This should be added to every article online reporting on this closure. Absolute scumbag moves.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...