Take-Two was making layoffs in March, but just paid its top execs $72.3 million

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick and company president Karl Slatoff will be paid a combined $72.3 million in compensation this year.

As highlighted by Axios and detailed in an SEC filing, the payment is more than double what Zelnick and Slatoff earned in 2022 and will comprise a mix of cash and stock.

It should be noted this isn't a standard salary payment, but a performance-based payout based on a contract Take-Two signed with ZMC, the management company representing both Zelnick and Slatoff.

That contract shows Zelnick and Slatoff have agreed to a 60/40 split of compensation that is directly tied to performance metrics, including some related to player behavior such as recurrent spending.

Executive bonuses at Take-Two

For instance, both execs will share an annual management fee worth $3.2 million and performance-based RSUs worth $43.8 million, the latter of which assumes that targets related to "recurrent consumer spending" and "IP performance achievement" were achieved.

The news comes around five months after Take-Two revealed it would be pushing ahead with a $50 million cost reduction program.

The company, which oversees franchises like Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K, said the cuts would affect its "corporate and publishing functions" and impact personnel, processes, and infrastructure.

A few weeks later, Take-Two confirmed some employees at its U.S. publishing label, Private Division, had been laid off as a result of that cost cutting.