Back in April, Take-Two announced that it would be laying off around 5% of its workforce as part of a cost-cutting initiative. There’s been a lot of confusion around the announcement, with some reports saying that studios like Roll7 and Intercept are being shuttered, and Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick denying it. Either way, today game director Quinn Duffy has said via Linkedin that the team at Intercept are out of a job as of June 28.
It’s pretty frustrating. When previously asked directly about the status of Roll7 (developer of the acclaimed OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome) and Intercept Games (Kerbal Space Program 2) during an interview with IGN, Zelnick stated, “We didn’t shutter those studios, to be clear.”
Despite the choice of words, this seems hardly clear. Internal reports claimed to contradict this statement. But when IGN pressed for, erm, clarity, Zelnick said, “We did not give a label-by-label breakdown of what [the restructuring] looks like.”
I suppose it’s technically accurate that no public statement had been made, but I’d find it pretty embarrassing to split hairs over this.
In a Linkedin post today, Intercept’s game director Quinn Duffy said, “The team at Intercept Games will be laid off as of June 28th so a great group will be out and about looking for their new roles. As will I.”
To echo what my colleague Michael Beckwith wrote, I don’t see what the point of the denial is. Even a “no comment” would be more appropriate. Instead, this is like a parent telling a child they didn’t buy them a Game Boy for their birthday to keep it a surprise, but in this instance, it’s a studio being laid off. It just feels like a really insulting misdirection. Corporate executives really don’t seem to have much respect for their employees.
Few announcements have been made regarding the development of Kerbal Space Program 2, which is currently in Early Access. Take-Two confirmed to Game Developer that it will continue to make updates to Kerbal Space Program 2, but to what extent those updates will go is unclear.
The closure of Roll7 has likewise not been officially confirmed, but considering the internal note originated from that company, it feels all but certain. It’s a frustrating situation for a number of developers who are now being forced out into a competitive, struggling job market, with their previous work and livelihoods still taught on strings for show.
