Take-Two Interactive chief executive officer Strauss Zelnick has claimed the publisher has not shut down OlliOlli developer Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program 2 studio Intercept Games, despite reports and evidence to the contrary earlier this month.
Word of Intercept Games’ demise – and the loss 70 jobs at the studio – came via a Washington state closure notice submitted by Take-Two itself, and was corroborated by affected employees on social media. Later, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported Roll7’s closure after reviewing an internal email breaking the news to Take-Two staff.
It’s somewhat surprising, then, that Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick is claiming, in conversation with IGN’s Rebekah Valentine, “We didn’t shutter those studios.”
“We didn’t shutter those studios, to be clear,” Zelnick told the publication. “And we are always looking at our release schedule across all of our studios to make sure that it makes sense. So we are being very judicious because we are in the middle of a cost reduction program that we’ve already concluded and are now fully rolling out. We’ve announced that we’re saving $165m in existing and future costs, but we haven’t shuttered anything.”