ALL THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF PC GAMES

News

Take-Two still isn't sure about subscription services

Take-Two still isn't sure about subscription services

The head of Take-Two Strauss Zelnick has once again said he isn't sure about the viability of subscription services.

Speaking to investors, as reported by Seeking Alpha, the CEO was asked about Obsidian's The Outer Worlds (pictured), which was published by Take-Two's Private Division label, going into Xbox Game Pass on launch. Zelnick said that he felt that this sort of business model was more suited to catalog titles – i.e. games that have been out for a while – and not new releases like those seen in Xbox Game Pass.

"It’s hard to say. I think what we have said all long is that generally speaking we want to be where the consumer is," he said.

"Generally speaking, we think subscription offerings to the extent they exist are probably better suited to catalogue, but we are willing to take experimental chances when it makes sense for a particular title and when the deal underlying that option also makes sense for us. And we are pleased that we have a great partnership with Microsoft and we are mostly pleased that the title is such a big hit, it’s sold in more than two million units and has won 75 game awards. So it’s early days for all of these platforms. It’s obviously early days for many technologies, including streaming technology. Our goal is to be where the consumer is. We are ecumenical and we are open-minded."


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.