Gearbox Hit With Layoffs Following Acquisition by Take-Two - News

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Take-Two Interactive earlier today announced it has acquired The Gearbox Entertainment Company from Embracer Group for $460 million. It now appears the studio has been hit with layoffs, according to posts on social media from employees.

"Along with countless others, I've just been informed I've been laid off at Gearbox," said former PR Manager at Gearbox Jennifer Locke. "It really was a dream come true working on this team, and I'm incredibly grateful for my time here."

Chris Harada, the former Director of Online Engagement at Gearbox, confirmed he and many others have been laid off.

"Following the exciting news of the Take-Two Interactive & Gearbox Entertainment merger last night, I, like many others, received the unfortunate news this morning that our positions would no longer be required," said Harada.

"After three incredible years at Gearbox, my journey with the company has concluded. I am sincerely grateful to Dan Hewitt for giving me the chance to learn and grow. The first two years were a fantastic learning experience under his guidance, and this last year allowed me to work closely with Sean Haran and understanding all the awesome things regarding Business and Licensing."

A Senior User Research Investigator at Gearbox with the Twitter username JewelsVerne announced "I just lost my job."

As of the time of writing it isn't known how many at Gearbox have been laid off.

Thanks, Insider Gaming.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

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The Fury (on 28 March 2024)

Well that's crappy. You'd think they could spend 5 mil less and keep some people on. But guess that isn't how all this works. Spend to own IPs, not to support people.

• +2

VAMatt The Fury (on 28 March 2024)

They are publicly traded. Management has a legal obligation to act in the best interest of shareholders. Generally speaking, that means they need to make as much money as possible. And that, in turn (again, generally speaking), means that extraneous people must be let go.

• +4

Mnementh VAMatt (on 28 March 2024)

We live in a world, there management has a legal obligation to the interests of shareholders, but no legal obligation to the livelihood of the people creating the value a company has in the first place.

• +1

Garrus Mnementh (on 28 March 2024)

these people were not creating value anymore, they were duplicate positions...

• +6

Mnementh Garrus (on 28 March 2024)

How quickly your job will be obsolete, what do you think?

• +2

Garrus Mnementh (on 30 March 2024)

I don't care, these are business jobs, if you don't want your job to be obsolete choose a different field (nurse, teacher, ferryman...)

• +2

Mnementh Garrus (on 30 March 2024)

Well I initially replied to a post, declaring that they are legally obligated to let people go. I possibly would prefer a world, in which the legal obligation would be more strongly on the side of the workers, giving them more benefits in the case of a layoff.

• +2

Garrus Mnementh (on 31 March 2024)

no, when you work for someone, you voluntarily make an agreement, nobody should force anyone, boss or employee, it's over it's over, move on

they are getting a wad of cash you know when they leave, that's different, but the job is over

• -1

Esparadrapo VAMatt (on 29 March 2024)

I'd think that keeping them until the transition is over is the best course of action. But twenty bucks is twenty bucks I guess.

• +1

Garrus The Fury (on 28 March 2024)

Did you pay attention to these people's jobs? they are redundant, they are not developers... Take Two will takeover those type of jobs with their existing employees doing the same thing.

• +6

The Fury Garrus (on 29 March 2024)

No, don't care what they do. Losing your job after a company buys your company out sucks.

• +1

VAMatt The Fury (on 29 March 2024)

Of course it does. But, what difference does that make to the fact that they just gotta go?

• -1

The Fury VAMatt (on 30 March 2024)

Take 2 also have their own Devs, QA teams. Might as well replace everyone.

Maybe the PR manager at T2 doesn't want to take on all the work from Gearbox as well as their own already existing work.

But guess they gotta go. What's a few more amount the thousands?

• +1

Garrus The Fury (on 31 March 2024)

except those Devs are doing different things... not the same thing...

• -1

KLAMarine (on 28 March 2024)

These layoffs seem awfully common in the tech industry...

• 0

Azzanation (on 29 March 2024)

Better not hurt my Home World 3 game... Because I am in the credits :D

• -1