Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick on ‘GTA 6’ Jitters and Zynga Change & more related news here

Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, admitted that he is struggling with some nervousness surrounding the long-awaited release of “Grand Theft Auto 6” in November. He also addressed Zynga’s turnaround of Take-Two and the importance of investing in original properties during his conversation at the inaugural Interactive Innovation Conference in Las Vegas.

Zelnick spoke on April 28 at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas with Jennifer Maas, VarietySenior business writer for television and video games. Take-Two’s unveiling of “GTA 6” is expected to deliver a blockbuster performance for the company that operates a collection of major gaming labels, including Rockstar Games, 2K and Zynga.

“We are fortunate to have some of the greatest creative talent in the world working within the four walls of Take-Two and all of our affiliates. And I have always felt that the way to create success is to find the most talented people, encourage them to work within your system, and then give them unlimited resources (financial, creative, technical and human) to pursue their passion,” Zelnick said. “When that happens and the team delivers a property, it’s our job as a broader organization to do a better job with marketing and global distribution than anyone else, and then run a rational business that makes sound decisions without drama and does it again and again every day. And that’s why creative independence is a hallmark of creative success.”

“GTA 6” from Rockstar Games is the first new edition of the hit franchise since the 2013 release of “GTA 5” set sales records for Take-Two and the industry. Zelnick acknowledged that the pressure increases with the next title, but notes that he typically worries about all of the company’s big initiatives, for good reason.

“I’m really scared about all of our releases — multiply it by a billion this time,” Zelnick said. “And I think the moment you stop being afraid, you better get a different job if you’re in the entertainment business. Because [if] If you claim to be successful before you are successful, you will be largely wrong.”

Zelnick did not reveal any details about the game’s price, which Take-Two has not yet specified, beyond saying that the company is aware of the timing for consumers. “How do we deliver something amazing and how do we make sure that what people pay for it seems very reasonable,” Zelnick said of the considerations the company is weighing. He affirmed Maas’ question that news on the game’s price will come “soon.”

Take-Two has resisted the temptation to supply the “GTA” world with product placement and brand integration deals, despite the easy profits it could surely generate.

“We need to be true to the underlying intellectual property and we need to be true to our consumers,” he said. “It’s a fictional world and everything in it is fictional. So we don’t even take the risk of associating with brands because all the brands are made up. And I think that keeps us pure.”

But for other Take-Two games, like its NBA-related titles, “the brands exist naturally within the NBA. And as long as we present them in a natural way, in a way that’s consistent with what you would experience in a basketball game, that’s great. It’s a complement to the experience,” he explained.

The conversation also touched on the roller coaster ride Take-Two has had since its 2022 acquisition of mobile game maker Zynga. Zelnick, who became chairman of Take-Two in 2007 and CEO in 2011, was humble in detailing how he bought Zynga for $12.7 billion at the peak of the market, just before demand for mobile games began to decline. And then the company went through a drought for new games.

“The hardest thing is getting mobile visits. Mobile devices have the lowest visit rate in the interactive entertainment business,” Zelnick said. “We work deeply and have a spectacular team at Zynga led by [president] Frank Gibeau. And we knew each other for three years and we knew we were aligned culturally and we knew we were aligned strategically. “We were going in the same direction.”

In recent months, Zynga has become “a hit-making machine in the mobile space and has made other acquisitions, and has had tremendous organic growth with games like ‘Match Factory,’ ‘Color Block Jam’ and many others,” Zelnick said. “It’s been a spectacular deal for us, but it wasn’t without bumps along the way.”

Zelnick admitted that Zynga and other social casino game makers face new competition from prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi. “It’s hard to imagine that in the land of prediction markets eating fantasy sports companies’ lunch, that social casino would somehow [games] They will be exempt from that pressure. “I don’t see how it could be,” he said.

The most expensive thing Take-Two manages is investing in developing new ideas and harnessing the potential of cutting-edge technology to deliver amazing gaming experiences to fans. But without original ideas in the product portfolio, the company would wither despite its many long-running successes, Zelnick noted.

“It’s deeply frustrating when we invest in something for a long period of time and then it fails, but it would be more frustrating to burn the furniture to keep the house warm. That won’t turn out well in the future,” he said.

To reinforce his point, Zelnick shared a story about how he canceled a planned sequel to one of Take-Two’s biggest franchises because he could sense the lack of passion for the project in the room.

“We had a green light meeting years ago, and it was about a sequel to one of our franchises. There was something in the room, a vibe in the room that I didn’t feel comfortable with,” he said. “So I said to the producer, ‘Listen, let’s take a break. How excited are you to be working on this title?’ And he said, ‘Well, I know we’re doing this sequel and I feel good about doing it.’ I said, ‘You’re not answering the question.’ And how excited are you? And he said, ‘Well, honestly, I’m not very excited about working on it.’ I said, ‘Well, let’s end the meeting right here.’ We’re just not going to do that.’ “So what would make us want to work on legacy intellectual property again would be that the team is very excited about doing it.”

(Pictured: Variety’s Jennifer Maas interviews Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick on April 28 at the Interactive Innovation Conference in Las Vegas)