Take-Two is shutting down Playdots, the studio behind the mobile hit Two Dots. Based on Bloomberg, which would result in a loss of 65 jobs, although employees at the studio could apply for other jobs in Take-Two’s other mobile gaming giant, Zynga. Take two bought Zynga in May 2022 for $11 billion, in one of the biggest gaming deals ever.
While Playdots is best known for its Dots series of games, it has also developed several other games, including the recent Apple Arcade version of Garden Tails. According to Take-Two, employees who can’t find other roles in the studio’s Zynga family will be laid off.
While Playdots is a big player in the mobile space, its closure has a sad connotation. Take-Two bought Playdots for $192 million in 2020, but that pales in comparison to the blockbuster Zynga deal mentioned above. Zynga is one of the biggest publishers in the mobile space, boasting hits like Farmville, Words With Friends and their sequels. Zynga also owns a bunch of hugely lucrative mobile studios, including the developers of Empire & Puzzles and Toy Blast. Take-Two says that Two Dots will continue to receive updates from Zynga, but it’s unclear if any of the studio’s other games will survive in the process.
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