The top of Take-Two Interactive‘s AI crew has seemingly been laid off, together with an undisclosed variety of different staff engaged on leveraging AI on the firm that owns Rockstar Video games, 2K, and Zynga. The reorg comes regardless of CEO Strauss Zelnick saying the parent-publisher is “actively embracing generative AI.”
“It’s actually disappointing that I’ve to share with you that my time with T2 – and that of my crew – has come to an finish,” Luke Dicken, who turned Take-Two’s head of AI in early 2025 after a decade at Zynga, wrote on LinkedIn on Thursday. He added, “We’ve been creating innovative know-how to assist recreation growth now for 7 years. These of us know find out how to match innovation and novel drawback fixing approaches with robust product design chops to create methods that empower folks all through the event workflow.” A lot of Take-Two’s AI crew seems to have been established out of Zynga’s present utilized AI division. Take-Two acquired the cell gaming firm in 2022 for $12.7 billion however the partnership has struggled to generate new hits. Many trade colleagues of Dicken’s shared their shock on the information of the layoffs.
Take-Two declined to remark. Final month, the corporate tried to distance itself from instruments like Google’s Genie after its inventory worth took successful from buyers involved that generative AI would enable anybody to make world-class video games with out large growth groups. “Genie is early in its iteration at this level and making an attempt to make a comparability to a recreation engine is simply actually—they’re not even in the identical ballpark. Genie will not be a recreation engine,” Take-Two president Karl Slatoff stated on the time.
Whereas CEO Straus Zelnick has repeatedly poured chilly water on the concept that genAI might make the following Grand Theft Auto, he lately confirmed the corporate is all-in on exploring find out how to incorporate the know-how into recreation growth. “Because it occurs now, we’re actively embracing generative AI,” he stated throughout a latest investor name. “Now we have lots of of pilots and implementations throughout our firm, together with with our studios, and we’re seeing alternatives to drive efficiencies, scale back prices, and create the chance to do what digital know-how has at all times allowed, which is, mundane duties grow to be simpler and fewer related, which frees up our creators to do the extra fascinating duties of constructing excellent leisure.” However the trade’s embrace of AI has additionally sparked a backlash amongst gamers. Nvidia took a giant hit in March when it revealed how its upcoming DLSS 5 graphics tech would sloppify NPCs in fashionable video games. Even Arc Raiders, which offered thousands and thousands of copies and gained crucial acclaim regardless of NPCs voiced by genAI, lately began changing these synthetic voices with actual human recordings.
