After wave after wave of mass layoffs impacted almost every major games company in the last several months, the Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick says he feels confident that the publisher is on the other side of what’s been a highly fraught year for the industry.
Speaking to IGN alongside its quarterly financials, Zelnick says that its cost-cutting measures undertaken earlier this year exceeded the publisher’s targets, and that “we feel good about how we’re structured now.”
Notably, some of that cost-cutting includes the layoffs at the Private Division label and other company divisions made back in March, though specific numbers were neither given nor reported. However, Zelnick claims that Take-Two has weathered the worst of a post-pandemic slump, and is prepared for a surge of growth in the coming years.
“We’ve already gotten through the right-sizing we felt we needed to do, and we expect to be in growth mode going forward,” he said.
Take-Two looks ahead to GTA 6
Zelnick’s optimism is largely backed by the company’s numbers. Take-Two saw total net bookings of $1.44 billion in the last quarter, down 4% year-over-year thanks to a slight dip in recurrent spending, but well-within expectations. Grand Theft Auto 5 sold another five million copies in the quarter, bringing it to a total of 190 million units sold over its lifetime. Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold over 57 million total units, and NBA 2K24 got off to a solid start with 4.5 million units sold — not quite matching NBA 2K23’s five million in the same period, but not far off.
But what’s really driving expectations for a gangbuster Take-Two year to come is, of course, GTA 6. The publisher has been teasing a “highly anticipated year” in fiscal 2025 (beginning April of 2024) since this past May.
“We expect to enter this new era by launching several groundbreaking titles that we believe will set new standards in our industry and enable us to achieve over $8 billion in Net Bookings and over $1 billion in Adjusted Unrestricted Operating Cash Flow,” Take-Two said at the time. “We expect to sustain this momentum by delivering even higher levels of operating results in Fiscal 2026 and beyond.”
At the time, we predicted this was a harbinger of the next Grand Theft Auto, and our prediction seems to be on the cusp of coming true, with developer Rockstar just this morning confirming it would share a reveal trailer in early December.
But even if Grand Theft Auto 6 is the biggest moneymaker, it won’t be carrying the torch alone.
Take-Two has 52 total game releases currently planned through fiscal 2026 including Ghost Story Games’ long-awaited game Judas and its regular slate of annual sports titles. Presumably this also could include the publisher’s mystery NFL arcade game, whatever’s going on at 31st Union, a new Bioshock, a new game from Moon Studios via Private Division, and of course the ongoing revenue from Red Dead Online and whatever the successor to GTA Online ends up being.
Games continue to struggle with layoffs
It’s worth pointing out that lots of work, even lots of successful work, does not stop layoffs. Many companies this year that reported layoffs also reported record revenue. Bioware laid off 50 developers despite being on the cusp of releasing the highly-anticipated Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Companies with successful ongoing games like Bungie with Destiny 2 and Epic Games with Fortnite laid hundreds off this year.
No one, not even Zelnick, is making promises. But he did offer some insight on why Take-Two felt it was most likely in the clear for the foreseeable future.
“With regard to the industry, I do think people got a little fat and happy during the pandemic,” he said. “I think there was a perception on the part of many that the music would never stop. That wasn’t our perception. When asked, we said we expected demand post-pandemic to be higher than pre-pandemic and lower than during the pandemic. That’s what occurred. So I think we were relatively well-situated with regard to our headcount. Any time we have to part ways with someone it’s sad. It’s deeply sad, because we care so much about our colleagues. However, we do feel that we’re well-positioned going forward and don’t expect to be challenged in that way.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
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