Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has commented on the state of the AAA video game market, saying “it’s hard and getting harder.” He gave this answer in response to a question from GI.biz about what he perceives to be the challenges of the AAA space today, against the backdrop of games like Star Wars: Outlaws coming up short in terms of financial performance.
“I think it’s hard and it’s getting harder. And that’s true of all entertainment businesses as they begin to mature,” he said. “The quality threshold that the consumer demands always goes up.”
Zelnick claimed Take-Two is uniquely positioned to succeed in this challenging market because its core goals are to be the “most creative, the most innovative, and the most efficient company in the entertainment industry.”
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Those are very lofty ambitions, of course, and Zelnick said if Take-Two can even manage to “come close to achieving those goals,” then it stands to find success with its products. But Zelnick agreed that, as the video game industry has matured, the “quality demands” of players have increased over time.
Take-Two makes AAA games, and not just any AAA games, but some of the biggest in gaming. Take-Two’s next big release is 2025’s Grand Theft Auto VI, which is arguably the most anticipated video game in history and one that no doubt carried a significant development budget.
Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden recently commented on the state of the AAA video game industry, saying, “If we’re just going to rely on the blockbusters to get us through, I think that’s a death sentence.”
Layden said rising development costs for AAA games have encouraged studio executives to make safe bets, leading to a “collapse in creativity.”
Take-Two makes sequels, but also believes in funding new IP. In fact, Zelnick also recently said that if Take-Two doesn’t invest in new IP, the company runs the risk of “burning the furniture to heat the house, and that doesn’t end well.”
As for Star Wars: Outlaws, many believed the game would be as close to a guaranteed hit as there could be given the popularity of the Star Wars series and the appetite for single-player games. However, Outlaws underperformed Ubisoft’s expectations. Ubisoft isn’t giving up on the game, however.