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MCV 11/06/10 55 BEN FEDER, CEO, TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE
Take-Two's property ladder
The company owns some of the hottest franchises in the industry, including Grand Theft Auto and BioShock. As E3 approaches, James Batchelor speaks to CEO Ben Feder about how these properties and new IP are helping Take- Two break into iPad, social games, shooters and more...
What can we expect to see from you at this year’s E3?
Our line-up for the rest of this year is our most diverse ever and includes both new intellectual property and sequels to a number of our proven franchises. We’ll also have our best slate of Nickelodeon titles to date for this holiday season. Many of these titles will be shown at our booth during E3, and we’ll have a sneak peek at our first announced title for 2011 – Spec Ops: The Line. All of these games underscore our success in diversifying our business with a select portfolio of triple-A titles that encompass all of today’s key genres.
How do you think will Spec Ops grow your market share in the competitive shooter genre? The military shooter category is one of the most popular in our industry and we believe that it can support numerous offerings. I’m excited about the unique story-driven approach that 2K is taking. With Spec Ops, I’m confident in our ability to deliver a triple-A title that will have many innovative features.
This is a new IP for 2K. What challenge does that present? We have a diversified portfolio of more than 16 franchises that have each sold over a million units, and it’s important to remember that at one point each was a new, unproven intellectual property
that we successfully grew in the market. The advantage of having a diversified portfolio is that the strength of our franchises gives us the flexibility to invest in new intellectual property that we believe can have long-term success for our company. The success of BioShock, Borderlands
and Mafia are all perfect examples of our ability to deliver critically acclaimed and commercially successful entertainment experiences. We’re confident that they will do the same with Spec Ops: The Line.
You’re also working on an FPS reboot of XCOM. Why have you chosen to bring back this series? XCOM is one of our industry’s most storied and beloved franchises and we are fortunate to have it in our stable of existing franchises. 2K Marin’s re- imagining promises to take XCOM to a new level with suspense-filled storytelling in a unique first-person shooter. The studio cut their teeth with BioShock 2 and I’m very proud of the result. They are ready for XCOM and I expect that they’ll deliver.
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Are there any other genres you want to expand your presence in? Online and social games represent two areas that we are looking to expand our presence in. Our strategy in these areas is to lead with our proven brands that are synonymous with high quality and innovative entertainment experiences. This year, we’ll launch an open beta
of our Sid Meier’s Civilization for Facebook. We’re excited to enter this category of gaming and our strategy to date has been to build rather than acquire companies in the social network sector.
Take-Two prides itself on bringing games to all platforms. Our plan is to lead with our proven brands that are synonymous with high quality. Ben Feder, Take-Two
recently launched our first title for the iPad – Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution. Take-Two prides itself on offering our games on all platforms that interest consumers, have sufficient technical capabilities for us to show off our world- class content, and have compelling business models. We’ve had very good experiences working with the iPhone and iPod touch, and are excited about the iPad and working with Apple.
You’ve also previously produced games for iPhone such as GTA: Chinatown Wars. How successful have they been? Both Civilization Revolution and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars were No.1 apps shortly after launch on the App Store for iPhone and remained in the Top 10 for several weeks thereafter, showing how proven brands can drive sales on emerging platforms. We’ll continue to bring our IP to this and other emerging platforms when it makes sense to do so. In fact, we
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Take-Two has made great strides in the DLC field, but do you have any plans for digital-only games? There is a lot of hype around digital and digital-only. The fact is that our bread and butter business – making rich interactive experiences for a passionate audience – is centered at retail. That said, our digital business continues to become a meaningful contributor to our company. We’ve had good success with downloadable content and digital sales of our PC and catalog titles. We will continue to selectively engage in strategic opportunities in emerging markets and new platforms. We recently created a dedicated division within our organisation that is focused on identifying these opportunities to fully leverage the strength of our portfolio and maximise the launches of our latest frontline releases. We also think DLC will allow our retail partners to boost customer relationships.
MCV INTERVIEW
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