Take-Two CEO Still Doesn't Believe in Game Pass
Take-Two's CEO once again commented on services such as Xbox Game Pass. Strauss Zelnick still doesn't believe in the success of this distribution model.
- Strauss Zelnick once again confessed that he does not believe in services such as Xbox Game Pass;
- Using them to share game premieres supposedly doesn't make sense;
- It has to do with the way we consume games.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick is known for his negative attitude to subscription services like Xbox Game Pass. He already displayed his attitude towards such subscriptions last year, questioning the sense of including games at the moment of their release. During the recent investor call (via GameSpot) he spoke on the topic again. As you can see, he hasn't changed his mind.
"Our views remain unchanged. We think a subscription model can make sense for deep catalog titles. But it doesn't really make sense for frontline titles. For any business model to make sense in the entertainment business, it has to work for the creators of the entertainment as well as the consumers of the entertainment."
Zelnick makes it clear. Take-Two is considering the possibility of putting its older or minor games on Xbox Game Pass-like services. New titles, however, will not appear in them, because classic distribution is more profitable. This is supposed to be connected with the way consumers use digital entertainment. According to the CEO of Take-Two, what seems to make sense in the case of movies and TV shows does not have to be the right solution in the case of video games.
"Consumers who are involved with interactive entertainment have different consumption patterns than those involved with linear entertainment. Linear entertainment consumers consume something like 150 hours of programming a month. That's probably well over 100 different titles. In the case of interactive entertainment, consumers are consuming something like 45 hours a month, and that may be one, two, three, four titles. But it's certainly not 100 titles. So from a consumer point of view, it's not clear that a subscription model really makes sense, for the bulk of consumers."
Other developers seem to have a different opinion and are willing to include their titles in services such as Xbox Game Pass. It's possible that Take-Two will one day change its approach. Zelnick confessed that he does not want to shut out this method of distribution completely. In the future the company is to use these services from time to time and test the profitability of this solution.
