Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick was featured in a lengthy interview published on Protocol. As usual, the Take-Two CEO didn't mince words even on the hottest topics.
Speaking of the upcoming next-generation launch, Zelnick said he believes Microsoft will do very well with the Xbox Series S and X consoles. He even suggested more acquisitions might be in order, and pointed to Microsoft's 'great balance sheet' to highlight the Xbox company's ability to do so.
So far it looks to me as though they're both approaching this launch very aggressively. We've always worked happily with both parties. We would like to see both be very successful. In certain parts of the world, as you know, Sony had a preferred position last time around. I think Microsoft is working very, very hard to see that that's not repeated. I think it will be a challenge in Asia, where Sony's dominated.
But if I had to guess, I think Microsoft is going to do very well. [...] Sony are going to focus, as they always do, on aiming at an advantage on the content side. But Microsoft's trying to do the same thing; as you know, Microsoft has bought some studios. There's a lot of stuff that they own and control. Perhaps they'll do more of that. They have a great balance sheet.
Microsoft also just launched its cloud gaming service, currently tied to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, but Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has never been a big believer in the cloud. In fact, even in this instance, he reiterated it's not likely Take-Two will be able to double or triple the already incredible sales of games like GTAV and RDR2 thanks to the bigger customer base enabled by the cloud.
I suspect it will not be transformative. I'm speaking against my own interests, right? We're supposed to paint this picture of nirvana; however, I just don't think it's nirvana. Nirvana is making great hits, and then people will find them.
We've sold 135 million units of Grand Theft Auto V, 32 million units of Red Dead Redemption. I wish I could tell you that there will come a point where various cloud gaming services will mean those numbers are doubled or tripled, but I don't really see it.
What do you think of the opinions expressed by the Take-Two CEO?
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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