GTA 6 Publisher Axes Incredible Indie Studio Behind OlliOlli And Rollerdrome

Last month, Take-Two announced it was “rationalizing its pipeline” by cutting hundreds of jobs and cancelling $140 million worth of in-development projects. Today, it moved ahead with shutting down the studios behind Kerbal Space Program 2 and OlliOlli World, Bloomberg reports.

The Week In Games: What’s Coming Out Beyond Alan Wake 2

An employment notice filed in Washington State today, first reported by Game Developer, revealed that Take-Two was planning to lay off 70 people in Seattle where Intercept Games, maker of the space sim Kerbal Space Program 2, is based. Bloomberg reports that a note delivered today to staff at Roll7 in London confirmed they were getting laid off as well.

Both studios were part of Private Division, Take-Two’s publishing label for smaller and more bespoke games. “The label continues to make updates to Kerbal Space Program 2 and plans to release Wētā Workshop Game Studio’s Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game in the second half of 2024,” a spokesperson for Take-Two told Game Developer in a statement.

Kerbal Space Program 2 has been a mess on the mend since it launched in Early Access on Steam last year. Originally in development at a studio called Star Theory, Take-Two pulled the contract and poached much of its staff back in 2020 to complete work on the game internally at the newly formed Intercept Games. It’s unclear who will continue updating the game now that Intercept is being shuttered.

Roll7 has been around much longer. Formed back in 2008, its first breakout hit was the 2D pixel art skateboarding game OlliOlli which debuted on the PlayStation Vita in 2013. A sequel, as well as the run-and-gun action game Not A Hero, followed in subsequent years. Take-Two acquired the studio in 2021, and the following year Roll7 released OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome, both of which won critical acclaim for their movement and style.

The studio’s founders told Edge Magazine in 2022 that they joined Take-Two because they were tired of playing “publisher Tinder” and always hunting for new funding. “Indie spirit, corporate money” was the motto at the time. Now the publisher is pulling the plug on the latter as it tries to keep shareholders happy ahead of Grand Theft Auto VI’s launch next year.

“It does really feel that the next thing we put out will be the magnum opus, the big game,” Simon Bennett, Roll7’s co-studio director, told Edge at the time. “OlliOlli World was a sequel—it was the best game we ever made, but it wasn’t a totally new IP, and it’s been a long time since we’ve been in that headspace. To be able to do that with a team that is so fucking amazing, and with that backing of Private Division—holy shit, we’re going to make something really big.”