GTA Publisher Claims It 'Didn't Shutter' Roll7, Intercept Games | Push Square
Take-Two, the publisher behind Grand Theft Auto and owner of other labels such as Private Division, has denied reports it recently shut down Rollerdrome, OlliOlli developer Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program 2 team Intercept Games. Having been questioned by IGN during a financial call today, CEO Strauss Zelnick responded: «We didn't shutter those studios.»
Having explained the company is «always looking at our release schedule across all of our studios to make sure that it makes sense», he continued: «So we are being very judicious because we are in the middle of a cost reduction program that we've already concluded and are now fully rolling out. We've announced that we're saving $165 million in existing and future costs, but we haven't shuttered anything.»
Confused by the response, IGN followed up and asked Zelnick if he was denying the reports both studios had closed, based on Bloomberg articles and a notice to shut down a Seattle office. At this point, a PR representative stepped in and said: «What we've said is, in the 8-K filing that we put out we talked about the cost reduction plan is approximately 5% reduction in headcount worldwide, but we did not give a label-by-label breakdown of what that looks like.»
Asking one more time for clarification of whether the two developers still existed or not, PR again responded: «We have not provided any additional colour beyond what I just said. We just tend to leave those announcements to the label, so we're not trying to be cute or difficult today.»
As pointed out by the IGN article and Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, this wouldn't be the first time Take-Two has shut down a developer and then never acknowledged the closure publicly. In 2013, it shuttered BioShock 2 studio 2K Marin and never spoke of it publicly. Today's comments leave the situation in an uneasy state where we can't say for certain whether Roll7 and Intercept Games still exist, and the status of their employees.
Liam grew up with a PlayStation
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