Two Years After $192M Acquisition, Take-Two Shuts Down Two Dots Studio Playdots

Take-Two is shutting down Playdots, the studio behind the smash mobile hit Two Dots. According to Bloomberg, this will result in the loss of 65 jobs, though staffers at the studio can apply for other jobs within Take-Two's other mobile gaming giant, Zynga. Take-Two purchased Zynga in May 2022 for $11 billion, in one of the biggest gaming deals ever.

Though Playdots is best-known for its Dots series, it also developed several other games, including the recent Apple Arcade release Garden Tails. Those employees who do not find other roles within the Zynga family of studios will receive severance, according to Take-Two.

Though Playdots was a major player in the mobile space, its closure makes a sad kind of sense. 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 largest publishers in the mobile space, boasting such hits as Farmville, Words With Friends, and their sequels. Zynga also owns an umbrella of extremely 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 stay alive in the process.