Last month the games company Take-Two Interactive announced it would reduce its global staff by 5%, laying off 580 people to reduce costs. It was one of many such announcements in 2024, but this case is especially egregious because Take-Two ownsRockstar Games, which publishes Grand Theft Auto, AKA the most successful game in the history of the world, and is definitely not short of profits. Last week, Bloomberg () reported on internal documentation showing the likely victims of these cuts: studios Intercept Games in Seattle and Roll7 in London are set to close. Both are part of Private Division, the giant publisher's indie game label. I spent some time with Intercept's Kerbal Space Program 2 last year, when they were gearing up to launch.

Mega-publisher Take-Two Interactive is shuttering Rollerdrome studio Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program 2 team Intercept Games, according to paperwork seen by Bloomberg. Roll7 is based in London, and was founded in 2008 by lifelong friends Tom Hegarty and Simon Bennett. Roll7 is the studio behind OlliOlli, OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome, all fantastic games with wheel-based mechanics. OlliOlli was a Vita hit in 2014 and World landed in early 2022 -- they're both great, and the latter in particular is a flow-state-inducing skateboarding platformer with an adorable art style. Rollerdrome was one of our favorite games of 2022; it's a luscious third-person rollerskating-and-gunplay game that looks like a slice of 1970s dystopian sci-fi. Roll7 has picked up multiple prestigious awards over the years, including recent wins at BAFTA and DICE.

Take-Two Interactive plans to lay off 5 percent of its workforce, or about 600 employees, by the end of the year, as reported in an SEC filing Tuesday. The studio is also canceling several in-development projects. These moves are expected to cost 160 million to 200 million to implement, and should result in 165 million in annual savings for Take-Two. As the owner of Grand Theft Auto and the parent company of Rockstar Games, 2K, Private Division, Zynga and Gearbox, Take-Two is a juggernaut in the video game industry. It reported 5.3 billion in revenue in 2023, a nearly 2 billion increase over the previous year.

It's the first official smartphone app for the chatbot, joining a crowded field of third-party mobile AI software which also taps into the GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 APIs powering ChatGPT. It also allows switching between standard and GPT-4 language models for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, as well as conversation history (synced from your the desktop if you sign in with the same account) and the ability to export data and delete or rename conversations. It's only available in the US for now, but the company says it will expand to additional countries "in the coming weeks." At the same time, there are reports some tech companies are wary of staff using AI chatbots. In early April, The Economist Korea reported three Samsung employees shared confidential information with ChatGPT.)

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a leading developer, publisher, and marketer of interactive entertainment for consumers around the globe. For more than 25 years, our development teams have created some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful entertainment experiences, captivating, and engaging audiences around the world. We are incredibly proud of our ability to consistently deliver the highest-quality titles, as well as our colleagues who help to create our unique culture and work environment that is inclusive, diverse, and dynamic. While our offices are casual and inviting, we are deeply committed to our core tenets of creativity, innovation and efficiency, and individual and team development opportunities. Our industry and business are continually evolving and fast-paced, providing numerous opportunities to learn and hone your skills.

Take-Two develops, publishes and markets some of the world's biggest games. We publish products through our labels Rockstar Games, 2K, Ghost Story, PlayDots, Social Point as well as Private Division label and Nordeus. Our Rockstar label creates Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, two of the most critically acclaimed gaming franchises in history. Our 2K label creates games like NBA 2K, WWE 2K, Bioshock, Borderlands, Evolve, XCOM and the beloved Sid Meier's Civilization. Our Private Division label publishes Kerbal Space Program, Ancestors and The Outer Worlds.

The virtual stage is set for this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, returning as an all-digital event, due to the pandemic, instead of the annual pilgrimage to L.A. to cram into the Los Angeles Convention Center. But the focus of the four-day celebration, taking place June 12-15, remains the same as the annual show that first debuted in 1995: to catch a glimpse at upcoming video games and new hardware, attend press conferences and panels, and perhaps spot celebrity appearances. "For more than two decades, E3 has been the premier event and showcase for the video game industry," says Stanley Pierre-Louis, President and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a Washington, D.C.-based organization that serves as the voice and advocate for the video game industry. Yes, the internet fails:Outages like Fastly's will happen. Here's how to protect yourself "Even before the pandemic, we recognized the importance of reaching out to the digital audience, and so this new format creates exciting opportunities to bring fans, the media and industry together all under one tent" adds Pierre-Louis.

The game will not utilize Microsoft's "Smart Delivery" feature, which would upgrade for free games purchased for the current generation Xbox to the Series X. Instead, Take-Two will charge $100 for a "Black Mamba Forever" edition, which features the late Kobe Bryant on the cover and will include the next-generation game when it releases. Microsoft gave game publisher's a way for their consumers to transition to the next generation for free. Take-Two's answer was no thanks.

Publishing deals in the video game industry are generally kept secret, with terms hidden behind non-disclosure agreements and the threat of legal fallout. However, in the realm of AAA publishing, it's common for independent developers to sign contracts granting them less than 10 percent of a game's lifetime revenue, in exchange for marketing and financial assistance from a multibillion-dollar organization. In some cases, the developer also signs away their intellectual property rights, losing creative control over the game entirely. Or, a huge company will simply buy the smaller studio outright, devouring its existing library and creative talent, and overseeing all of its future products. In late March, Epic Games launched a multiplatform publishing initiative touting "the most developer-friendly terms in the industry." Under this deal, developers are guaranteed 50 percent of a game's revenue once production costs are recouped, and they retain full creative control over their own titles. Epic also promises to cover up to 100 percent of a game's development costs, including salaries, advertising and publishing fees. "We're building the publishing model we always wanted for ourselves," said Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. Epic Games has been experimenting with publishing models since the early '90s, decades before the launch of Fortnite, The Epic Games Store or the Unreal Engine. We're talking about the days of BBS, back when Sweeney was building ZZT out of his parents' house and the World Wide Web was just flickering to life.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and Electronics Arts Inc. both tanked in U.S. trading after the video-game publishers posted disappointing numbers, yet another sign that the phenomenal success of Fortnite is looming large on the industry. Take-Two, the maker of Grand Theft Auto, said revenue in the quarter ending in March will be $450 million to $500 million, when analysts anticipated $609.1 million. Its shares slumped as much as 14 percent, the most since December 2009, while Electronic Arts dropped 16 percent following a similar shortfall late Tuesday. Rivals Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Activision Blizzard Inc. also fell. Game publishers have been thrown for a loop by the phenomenal success of Fortnite, a shooting game from Epic Games Inc., which counts Chinese social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. as a major shareholder. The game uses a "battle royale" format that lets users start a new competition immediately after they are eliminated, an addictive feature that keeps users playing -- and just hanging out chatting -- for hours on end.