The corporation behind the game series Grand Theft Auto and developer Rockstar Games, Take-Two Interactive, is reported to have let go of its Head of AI, Luke Dicken, together with some other members of his team. The cuts come at a time when fans are counting down to GTA 6, and the company’s CEO has repeatedly talked up the power of artificial intelligence.
The news surfaced April 2-3, 2026, when Dicken posted directly on LinkedIn. In the post, he wrote:
“It’s truly disappointing that I have to share with you that my time with T2 and that of my team – has come to an end.”
He added that the group had spent seven years “developing cutting edge technology to support game development” and described his former colleagues as people who
“know how to match innovation and novel problem solving approaches with strong product design chops to create systems that empower people throughout the development workflow.”
Dicken asked his network to help the affected staff find new roles “especially in the current climate.”
Take-Two has not issued any official statement. Major gaming sites including Kotaku, PC Gamer, Insider Gaming, and Dexerto quickly picked up the story from Dicken’s primary-source post.
A tweet from X.
The layoffs arrived roughly two months after CEO Strauss Zelnick told investors the company was “actively embracing generative AI” through “hundreds of pilots and implementations” aimed at boosting efficiency and letting creators focus on higher-value work. Zelnick had also stressed that generative AI plays “zero part” in what Rockstar Games is building for titles like GTA 6, calling the idea of AI creating blockbuster hits “laughable.”
The apparent gap between those public comments and the decision to let go of the AI leadership team has drawn immediate attention across the industry.
Dicken joined Take-Two in early 2025 after more than a decade at Zynga, which Take-Two acquired in 2022. The AI group focused on internal tools that improved workflows, testing, and production pipelines across the company’s portfolio not on generating core creative content for Rockstar’s flagship games. Take-Two owns Rockstar Games, 2K, and Zynga, and the AI work was more closely tied to Zynga’s mobile and social titles than to the massive open-world development happening at Rockstar.
Dicken and part of his team are out. The move appears to be a restructuring rather than a complete shutdown of all AI work. Unknown: Precise headcount and the company’s internal reasoning. Speculation (clearly labeled): Observers note the timing may reflect cost pressures ahead of GTA 6’s fall 2026 launch or a shift toward embedding AI tools into existing teams instead of keeping a standalone group. No one outside Take-Two knows for sure.
This development fits a larger pattern. The U.S. gaming sector has seen more than 10,000 layoffs since 2024 as companies wrestle with rising development costs and shifting priorities around new technology. Take-Two itself conducted a 5 percent workforce reduction in 2024.
The story carries a human side too. Dicken’s tone stayed professional and supportive of his former colleagues rather than critical of the company. Early reports emphasize that this is not a full retreat from AI at Take-Two, but a recalibration.
The bigger question now facing the industry is straightforward: what does this move say about AI’s actual role in the future of big-budget game development? For a company that publicly champions the technology while trimming its AI leadership, the answer remains unclear.
