GTA 6 parent company blasted for quietly killing off beloved publisher

Take-Two Interactive, publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series, are reportedly closing down a label that they specifically created in order to publish smaller titles.

Despite reporting a net revenue increase of 56% in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2023, with the publisher reporting revenue of $1.45 billion, compared to $930 million in 2022, and despite owning the single most profitable entertainment product of all time, IGN reports that Take-Two is looking to either sell of shut down its indie label, Private Division.

According to the report, both the developer of Kerbal Space Program 2, Intercept Games, and OlliOlli World developer Roll 7 are both closing down this month. This, the report claims, is part of a move to either sell or close the label.

Per a IGN source:

"The people at Private Division were amazing, talented, passionate individuals who loved what they did and also really cared about each other as a team and as people. We loved our projects, we worked hard, and we fostered a great environment internally. I would love to work with any of them again. The pain point was always Take-Two and associated leadership forcing our hand. The whole layoff situation proved what we already felt. Take-Two could not care less about its employees."

Private Division itself was reportedly given unreasonable sales targets from a studio that recently reported a $2.9 billion quarterly loss (though which is still one of the most successful studios in the entire industry and recently acquired Borderlands publisher Gearbox Interactive).

"We feel like we're in a very good place right now," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in an earnings call.

"We've had three cost-reduction programs in recent memory: $100 million program, which we exceeded as part of the Zynga integration in 2022, a $50-million program, which we exceeded, and now, most recently, a $165-million program of cost containment and actual cost-reduction. Our three-part strategy is to be the most creative, most efficient and the most innovative company in the entertainment business, We don't always get there, but we certainly do try. This puts us in a very sound footing from an efficiency point of view."