CEO says Roll7 (OlliOlli) and Intercept Games (Kerbal Space Program) studios are not closed

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Schrödinger's Studios

The presentation of Take-Two's latest tax balance sheet allowed a few journalists to ask Strauss Zelnick questions, particularly regarding the fate reserved for Roll7 and Intercept Games. Bloomberg had informed us of the closure of these studios via a report from the Washington State Department of Employment Security, and several sources showed that it was even the entire Private Division which was on the hot seat by the very admission of employees, or rather ex-employees.

But Strauss Zelnick refuses to say that these studios are closed. Interviewed by Rebekah Valentine of the site IGNhe answers :

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“ We have not closed these studios, to be clear. And we're always reviewing our release schedule across all of our studios to make sure it makes sense. So we're very judicious because we're in the middle of a cost reduction program that we've already concluded and are fully rolling out. We announced that we are saving $165 million in current and future costs, but we haven't closed anything. »

The journalist therefore asked him if he refuted the information from Bloomberg and the Employment Department. Before he could respond, a Take-Two press representative jumped into the conversation to say:

“ What we said is that in the 8-K filing that we put out, we talked about the cost reduction plan which represents about a 5% reduction in workforce globally, but we didn't not given any detail, label by label, of what that looks like. »

A non-response therefore, forcing the journalist to insist by asking if these studios still existed today. An answer with which one can answer “yes” or “no”, but the press manager only indicated “ have no information to provide beyond what has been said ». An avoidance strategy that says it all.

Jason Schreier, for his part, publicly published the message received by Roll7 employees in which it was clearly stated that the studio was going to close its doors because of budget reductions decided within Take-Two. Regarding Private Division, again, Zelnick doesn't want to say anything and leaves the announcements directly to the label. A nice way to get away from your responsibilities, in short.

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