Take-Two: “We’re Highly Skeptical” About Subscription Services

During the recent investors’ calls, Take-Two Interactive’s President, Karl Slatoff affirmed that subscription-based services like PlayStation Plus, Xbox Game Pass, or Ubisoft + will fail to dominate the video games industry.

Thanks to the transcript provided by Seeking Alpha’s we know that Mario Lu, a participant in the meeting asked if the company Take-Two Interactive had some plans to capitalize on the surging market of subscription-based services.

I don’t think our views have changed much we’re open-minded. We’re highly skeptical that subscriptions will be the only way or the primary way that interactive entertainment is distributed. And that’s because of the way people consume it. And the price point for owning a title, which is very reasonable and very, very low, actually, on a per hour basis.

As Slatoff explains, the vision of Take-Two Interactive is to deliver AAA games that keep players entertained and looking forwards to the next game from the company, he admits that the business model could be profitable for delivering a catalog of games.

“We’ve supported numerous subscriptions, subscription offerings with catalog titles, I imagine we’ll continue to do so. And in any case, at the end of the day, the consumer will decide and we will be where the consumer is.”

Chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick reassured that Take-Two “wouldn’t rule out the possibility at some point.” He suggests that the company is willing to go for a “tethered free-to-play,” where players purchase a game like Grand Theft Auto and the online multiplayer is “effectively a free-to-play experience… that can go on for many years.”

Unlike many sorts of casual titles, the monetization is not necessary to enjoy the experience it’s an additional benefit … There are no toll booths in any of our online games that are attached to our core games.

Interestingly, Strauss Zelnick also affirmed recently that cloud gaming is not the future of gaming, while he admits that the technology is great for the casual gamer, the hardcore player will still invest in dedicated hardware such as consoles and PCs.

Zelnick explains that  Phil Spencer’s vision of the future of gaming is incorrect, according to the CEO,  Google, Microsoft are making a huge mistake as the alleged 2.8 billion gamers around the world don’t all have the required internet connection and will not have it anytime soon. The investment in platforms like Azure could end up being very expensive for Xbox and it would be wiser to spend all the resources on new AAA projects.

“The implication (of Cloud Gaming) is you are super interested in video games but you were just unwilling to buy a console. I mean, I’m sure there were people like that, but if they are so interested that they want to pay $60 or $70 for a front-line title, it’s hard for me to believe they were unwilling to spend $250 on a console to be able to do it ever in their life.”

Source: Seeking Alpha – Games Industry

Stay tuned at Gaming Instincts via Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook for more gaming news.