The management at Take Two Interactive has seen better days. The GTA publisher has been hit with numerous lawsuits and has been on the financial decline for quite some time. Gamasutra had some comments from financial advising company AG Edwards stating that there may be planned layoffs for Take Two. With Take Two to hold a conference call on April 10, AG Edwards expects that the troubled publisher will be implementing various changes, including layoffs, a reevaluation of third-party company relationships, a potential sale of one of Take Two’s publishing arm Jack of All Games, and the continued search for a permanent CEO. Lastly, AG Edwards predicts that Take Two will become a major developer for the Nintendo Wii. It pointed to three upcoming Wii games that’ll be released this year; Rockstar’s Manhunt 2, the video game accompaniment to the upcoming Fantastic Four film,and Blue Castle Games’ The BIGS arcade baseball game. AG Edwards noted that GTA IV will not be heading to the Wii.
It’s unknown which companies will be affected by these potential job cuts. Bill Kreher of AG Edwards told Next Generation that GTA developer Rockstar Games won’t be affected by these job cuts. "[Take-Two’s] not going to materially change things at Rockstar…I think that they had to make sure that the Housers [Sam and Dan, Rockstar co-founders] were happy with the management change, because they’re always free to walk." He also predicts that Civilization developer Firaxis and BioShock developer Irrational Games will be left unaffected. Nontheless, Kreher hinted that developer Global Star and various 2K Games companies may be getting cut.
For the past few months, it’s been a whirlwind of deliberation, stock exchange discussions and lawsuit after lawsuit for the publisher. Earlier in March, it was reported that the entire company might be sold off. But at the end of March, that story was put to rest when a group of investors replaced the entire executive group of Take Two with a brand new board of directors. This includes the removal of former Take Two CEO and President Paul Eibeler, who has garnered plenty of flack for handling various lawsuits, including the Hot Coffee scandal. The new head of the board is Strauss Zelnick, the founding partner of executive group ZelnickMedia and CEO of Tomb Raider: Legend/Legacy of Kain developer Crystal Dynamics. Replacing Eibeler as interim CEO is Ben Feder, another founder of Zelnick Media.
