This one’s a bummer. Mega-publisher Take-Two Interactive is shuttering Rollerdrome studio Roll7 and Kerbal Area Program 2 workforce Intercept Video games, in keeping with paperwork seen by Bloomberg.
Roll7 relies in London, and was based in 2008 by lifelong mates Tom Hegarty and Simon Bennett. Roll7 is the studio behind OlliOlli, OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome, all implausible video games with wheel-based mechanics. OlliOlli was a Vita hit in 2014 and World landed in early 2022 — they’re each nice, and the latter particularly is a flow-state-inducing skateboarding platformer with an lovable artwork fashion. Rollerdrome was one in all our favourite video games of 2022; it is a luscious third-person rollerskating-and-gunplay sport that appears like a slice of Seventies dystopian sci-fi.
Roll7 has picked up a number of prestigious awards through the years, together with current wins at BAFTA and DICE. Because the studio identify implies, Roll7 builders know the right way to make extremely clean motion video games.
Take-Two bought Roll7 in November 2021 and made it a subsidiary of Non-public Division, the corporate’s label for small- and mid-size publishing offers. Based on Bloomberg, Take-Two plans to shut Roll7 and can provide severance packages to workers.
Intercept Video games relies in Seattle and is answerable for Kerbal Area Program 2, a preferred flight-simulation title that is nonetheless technically in early entry on Steam. Take-Two based Intercept in 2020 particularly to handle Kerbal Area Program 2, and the sport has been receiving updates since going stay in February 2023.
Take-Two has but to substantiate that it is closing Intercept Video games — nevertheless it hasn’t stated it is not, both. The corporate filed a discover in Washington on Monday outlining plans to put off 70 individuals within the state and completely shut their administrative center, and a few Kerbal builders have confirmed their current departures. Non-public Division will proceed to replace Kerbal Area Program 2, Take-Two stated in a press release.
Take-Two is without doubt one of the largest online game firms round, reporting $5.3 billion in income final yr. It is the proprietor of Grand Theft Auto and the dad or mum firm of Rockstar Video games, 2K, Non-public Division, Zynga and — very lately — Gearbox Software program. Take-Two bought Borderlands studio Gearbox in March for $460 million. Grand Theft Auto VI, arguably essentially the most anticipated sport of the last decade, is because of add billions to Take-Two’s backside line in 2025.
In April, Take-Two introduced plans to put off 5 p.c of its workers, or roughly 600 individuals, by the tip of 2024. It additionally canceled some in-development tasks. When information of the deliberate firings broke final month, Take-Two did not determine which studios would take the hit, however now we all know it contains Roll7 and Intercept. The corporate laid off some Non-public Division staff in 2023 as effectively.
An estimated 9,400 individuals have been laid off within the online game trade up to now in 2024, and a complete of 10,500 staff had been let go in 2023. Sony, Microsoft and Riot Video games have fired a mixed 3,300 workers this yr alone, and the fallout from Embracer Group’s funding implosion retains spreading, with quite a few shuttered studios and greater than 1,400 displaced staff.