Take-Two’s executives earn millions in bonuses based on microtransactions

Take-Two laid off employees to save costs, but pays over $70 million to two executives

Publisher Take-Two Interactive announced layoffs earlier this year with the goal of saving up to $50 million in costs as laid out in an earlier financial report. Strategy game maker Firaxis was one of the studios under Take-Two’s umbrella to let go of some of its people in this context. However, things can’t be that bad for Take-Two according to a new report from Axios based on some documents the company recently disclosed to shareholders.

The documents reveal that CEO Strauss Zelnick and company president Karl Slatoff can expect a payment of $72,350,718 in 2023 – yes, that’s more money than the company stated it needed to save going forward. All that for two people.

Interestingly, a large part of the duo’s payments is specifically tied to how much the company’s games make from microtransactions alongside reaching other earnings targets.

Take-Two's NBA 2K series is full of predatory microtransaction mechanics.

2K Games

If you ever wondered why NBA 2K looks more like a casino simulator than a basketball game sometimes and why GTA Online is getting more and more aggressive with pushing players to spend money, then you’ve got your answer right here: The executives very directly benefit from such exploitative mechanics.

According to Axios, Zelnick and Slatoff even entered a new contract with Take-Two last year, which further increased the importance of microtransactions for their compensations. It seems to have worked out well for them so far: Their 2023 earnings will be more than double of those from 2022. Depending on how much players spend in Take-Two’s games for the remainder of the year, these numbers could shoot up even more.

After reporting disappointing financial results last year, Zelnick said in an interview with gamesindustry.biz: "When the results are poor, I take personal responsibility for them. Our teams are delivering and over-delivering. They're delivering hits; that's what they're supposed to do. I couldn't be more proud of them. Personally, I have work to do to make sure we run this business efficiently and that we deliver results over time, and that's what I aim to do."