Take-Two's CEO Strauss Zelnick has plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
It's more than just the fact Grand Theft Auto 6 – expected to be one of the biggest entertainment launches of all time – is still on course to launch in the autumn of next year. If we look at Take-Two's more immediate situation, the publisher's most recent financials showed that revenues and bookings were up for the three months ending September 30, losses were shrinking, annual staple NBA 2K recovered from its 2023's disappointing sales, and 11-year-old GTA 5 continues to outperform expectations.
It's not been all sunshine and rainbows though. Back in April, Take-Two announced it was laying off 5% of its workforce as the company fell prey to the same economic pressures that have affected almost every company in the video games industry.
Ahead of Take-Two's financial results for Q2 being announced, we spoke to Zelnick about the long-rumoured, now-confirmed sale of Private Division to an undisclosed buyer, and also discussed some of the wider challenges and opportunities facing the GTA firm.
The conversation can be found below, and encompasses the CEO's thoughts on the perks and perils of cramming four blockbuster releases into the next calendar year, the impact of the disappointing Borderlands movie, and the pressures that publishers encounter given the slow transition between console generations and consumers' ever-increasing quality demands for AAA games.
The interview has been edited for clarity.
"I do believe that PC will become a more and more important platform for AAA titles"
Take-Two has a hefty line-up for 2025, with Borderlands 4, Mafia: The Old Country, Civilization 7, and GTA 6 all arriving in the same year – plus annual releases like NBA 2K. What was the thinking behind having so many major brands release within the same window?
First of all, we bring the titles to market when they're ready and not before, so we can't manage the timing perfectly. Secondly, we've been building our pipeline
Take-Two Interactive
Publishing
Strauss Zelnick