Strauss Zelnick: Zynga's contrasting culture is a benefit, not a challenge, for Take-Two

gamesindustry.biz:

Christopher Dring

Head of Games B2B

Tuesday 11th January 2022

Take-Two

Zynga

The announcement may have come as a surprise, but Take-Two's interest in Zynga -- on paper at least -- made a lot of sense.

Take-Two has seen huge success through microtransactions, DLC and what they call 'recurring consumer spending' over the last generation, driven by its NBA games and Grand Theft Auto Online. It wants to grow and expand this through better practices. Zynga offers this.

It wants to grow in countries and markets where PC and consoles -- the company's speciality -- have yet to reach a mass audience. Zynga offers this.

It wants an expert that can take its big successful AAA games, like Grand Theft Auto, BioShock, Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands and Civilization, and make them truly work on mobile platforms. Zynga offers this.

And Zynga offers the ability to cross-promote and cross-engage audiences across devices. Both companies have a roster of sports titles that complement each other (including the hit racing franchise CSR Racing, which might go some way to alleviating the disappointment of missing out on Codemasters last year).

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick

And in return, Zynga gets access to some of the world's most treasured core games IP, and the opportunity to engage the smaller but lucrative console and PC gamer base. It all seems to add up.

But if there's one thing that gives us pause it's the fact that both companies have very different approaches to the games market.

Zynga was an early mover on Facebook with its social games, and ever since it's been fast to try new trends, technologies and business practices. Only last year the firm hired a VP of blockchain gaming, despite not being entirely sure of its direction.

Take-Two takes