Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick on the metaverse: ‘I’m always allergic to buzzwords’

Posted byby Dean Takahashi
May 18, 2021
Updated June 18, 2025
2 min

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in an earnings call today that he is allergic to buzzwords like the metaverse, special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), and cryptocurrencies.

Those buzzwords have generated a huge amount of excitement and investment. There are those like Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki who want to build a metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One. SPACs are quick alternatives to going public, and companies such as Skillz have used these to raise money on Wall Street. And cryptocurrency fans have touted the blockchain-based tech as being transformative for games.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.