Take-Two spent $53 million on a cancelled game that was never even announced

Nestled in Take-Two Interactive’s most recent earnings report was information that it was charged $53 million dollars for an unannounced title that has been cancelled.

“Cost of goods sold included a $53 million impairment charge related to the Company’s decision not to proceed with further development of an unannounced title in its pipeline,” Take-Two said in a press release.

The report did not name the title nor the affiliated studio that worked on it. However, according to a Bloomberg report, the cancelled title is from Mafia III developer Hangar 13. The California-based developer also released the Mafia: Definitive Edition in 2020.

The Bloomberg report says that according to sources at the studio, the game was codenamed Volt and suffered from a number of setbacks associated with the pandemic and constantly shifting development focus. No word yet on if the company will suffer layoffs as a result of the cancellation.

The cancelled game wasn’t the only bad news to come out of Take-Two’s earnings report. Earlier today, Firaxis Games announced it’s delaying its Marvel title, Midnight Suns until the second half of 2022. The card-based XCOM-like was originally scheduled for a March 2022 release date.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/3/22762349/take-two-cancelled-unannounced-title-from-hangar-13