Take-Two’s CEO says having its games on subscription services on day one ‘doesn’t make sense’
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has said he doesn’t think it makes economic sense for the company’s games to be available on subscription services on the day of their release.
In a new video interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Zelnick pointed out that while Take-Two’s games do appear on subscription services, he doesn’t believe adding them on day one is the best practice.
“We’ve supported various subscription services and we’re happy to do so,” Zelnick said. “Our scepticism has been around making frontline console products available day and date with subscription.
“That doesn’t make any sense to us because, economically speaking, we don’t think consumers are prepared to pay for that – why would they? – and we can’t afford to turn our business upside down in a way that doesn’t make sense economically.
“So there always has to be an intersection between what the consumer wants and what the publisher is able to do, and it doesn’t make sense to do that for frontline properties in our opinion. I think Sony minimally agrees with us, because they’ve said so.
“It can be potentially great for catalogue properties – those are properties that have been in the market for a while. If their price has been reduced it can make economic sense to offer those on a subscription basis.”
However, Zelnick stressed that this may not always be the company’s stance, and it may change depending on how the subscription landscape changes in the future.
“This company does not operate based on one person’s opinions, including mine, and when it makes sense we’ll support subscription services, and if that’s where the consumer wants to be, that’s where we’ll be,” he explained.
“It’s one of the terrifying things about working in video games – that we’re
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