Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, said in an interview today with GamesBeat that awareness of Grand Theft Auto VI, which launches in 10 days, is “very strong indeed” and participation in the franchise is as well.
We talked about the company’s earnings report today and I also asked if marketing awareness for GTA VI was on track.
“Marketing is rolling out as planned. It’s a significant marketing campaign. There’s a lot of outdoor (advertising). There’s there’s a lot of audiovisual marketing on social, on television, and it’s a worldwide program. So I think Rockstar is doing a great job on the marketing, and I do feel like awareness and participation is very strong, indeed.”
I noted that the Miami marketing events, where the NBA basketball team Miami Heat will play against the Milwaukee Bucks on November 18 as Vice City, could generate the biggest impact on social media.
Zelnick said, “Minimally, the most fun. There’s nothing like taking over an entire city.”
Take-Two reported earnings today and its stock price is up 5% in after-hours trading to $213.70 a share. Overall, Take-Two is valued at $38.8 billion in the market. The one downside in the earnings was that the company didn’t hit quarterly estimates on bookings because NBA 2K27 results were lower than expected at launch in September.
Last week, a writer at the Wall Street Journal asked if Take-Two needed more hits beyond GTA VI, and Zelnick rattled off a number of big hits across mobile, PC and console games, from the NBA 2K series to Toon Blast. I asked him if it would help if Take-Two were better understood.
“We always want more hits, and we’re we’re really proud of our of our labels and everything they’ve achieved. We have 15 huge franchises that have been sold at least five million units in an individual release, along with a massive mobile business,” Zelnick said to me. “And I just couldn’t be more proud of my 13,000 colleagues around the world, especially on the eve of, hopefully, an historic release. So, we feel really good about how things are going and how things can go in the future.”
I also asked if there was a good effect flowing from GTA VI’s launch for the larger gaming industry.
He said, “Good question. In general, hits are good for an entertainment business, not just for the company that launches the hit title in question, but also for the entire industry because people are engaged with interactive entertainment, and then they want more of it because it’s such a great medium.”
And Zelnick added, “So, I think while it’s possible there was some dampening effect in the past couple of months as consumers anticipate GTA VI, I think post-release, one way or the other, I think the business will benefit. Also, of course, the launch of GTA VI undoubtedly has sold consoles, and so there will be a larger install base, and all the industry participants (including Take-Two) should benefit from that.
I asked if the PC version of GTA VI, the online version, and the user-generated content would be coming soon or over a longer period of time. He said, “As you know, questions like that are always addressed in the fullness of time by our labels.”
Regarding the industry’s state, I asked if there is a recovery under way, or at least a slowdown in industry layoffs.
Zelnick said it’s been a while since there have been huge layoffs.
“As an industry, (games) bounced back to growth well over a year ago, pretty much across the board.”
I noted that direc-to-consumer mobile game results stood out in the earnings announcement in a bigger way in this quarter.
Zelnick said, “We’re very happy for the performance of our mobile business. We have a lot of hits, and we continue to deliver new ones. We have titles that are performing exceedingly well right now. For example, Toon Blast, which grew 4% over last year’s record results, Words with Friends, which grew 6% year over year, and we have wonderful titles coming, including Top Goal. So our mobile business continues to perform incredibly well, and that’s very gratifying.”
K asked if he saw The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which launched last week, as competition for GTA VI. He noted it has a 96 out of 100 score on Metacritic.
“It’s terrific, and they should be very proud of the title. In the entertainment business, you compete against everything and and nothing. Everything because there’s so many ways consumers can spend their time, and nothing because if there’s nothing good out there, people don’t need to consume any of it. It’s like food; like food could be bad, but you still are going to be hungry. But in the case of entertainment, it’s not a must-have; it’s a want to have. So it’s our job to make the best entertainment on earth. When we do that, people will show up for it.”
Regarding NBA 2K 27, I noted that the game came in below expectations for its September launch. I asked if the main effect was that September was such a crowded month for games dodging GTA VI.
“Let’s just say it both correctly and in the positive. NBA 2K 27 is our second best launch of an NBA 2K title in history. It sold 4 million units. Our current consumer spending is up year over year. We feel great on NBA 2K27, and for the remainder of our year, we have more and better content coming than ever before. So I couldn’t feel better about it than I do. That said, it was a bit of a crowded time as people got out of the way of GTA VI, our sports title did significantly better pound for pound than our competitors, which were all down materially year over year. So we feel as good as we possibly can, and there probably were some exogenous circumstances, including some caused by our very own company to affect the market.”
I asked if he was worried that serial games that come out every year may not perform as well as they have in the past.
“No, not necessarily. If they’re great, they’ll do great. If they’re bad, they’ll do bad.”