THE INTERVIEW STRAUSS ZELNICK
of titles that are generating ongoing consumer spending. But it’s too early for us to say,” admits Zelnick. “We have a robust release schedule and we are excited about that. The fact that this model is now evolving in this way does support our very selective approach to making games.” He adds: “It is a risky business.
The way we mitigate risk is by knowing our market and producing the highest quality titles in the business. And according to Metacritic we have been doing that for six years – that does cut your risk. But even so, we have had some things that haven’t gone our way and I am sure we will in the future, much to our dismay. It is incumbent on us to build our business that has some mitigating support, such as our catalogue and our recurrent consumer spending.”
RETAIL IN 2014 For all the talk of its growing digital sales, Take-Two remains
New IP Evolve is launching in October
I hope the market is beginning to see we are becoming a more
reliable enterprise. Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two
a publisher very much imbedded into the world of retail. And Zelnick does not expect that to change. “Games is still largely a physical business,” he says. “Physical distribution represents somewhere between 70 to 80 per cent of our revenues year-in, year-out. Digital distribution is growing, recurrent consumer spending is growing, and digital revenue is indeed very
exciting and compelling. But our primary channel partner remains physical retail.” It is retail that has been making
its big games, GTA included, pop- culture events. Whereas in mobile, for instance, the firm has had mixed success – although Zelnick says it’s just a matter of time. “It is not about whether something is mobile or fixed, it is about the screen size and the processing power. There’s no doubt that what we are best at and known for are these triple-A immersive experiences. Over time mobile devices are going to be able to handle those experiences well and therefore we will surely launch on those devices.” Other new tech has caught
Zelnick’s eye includes VR: “We are actively interested in virtual reality. Neither Oculus Rift or Morpheus have been launched commercially, so it is too early for anyone to support them. But if the consumer is there, then we expect to be there.”
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