During the 43rd Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in New York, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said that we haven’t fully experienced what the next-gen console technology can do, and that’s “super exciting.”
We have yet to see entirely what the technology can allow. We’ve had a couple releases for new-gen, but I don’t think we remotely have seen what can be done, and that’s super exciting. And that speaks to many of our titles; hopefully all of our titles, ultimately.
Elsewhere in his presentation, Zelnick said with reference to microtransactions and DLC that players shouldn’t feel like developers have picked their pockets.
You never want to the consumer to feel as though you’ve picked their pocket. You want a consumer to feel like you gave them a great experience. You want them to be happy that they spent money on the experience.
Zelnick went on to say that some developers, mainly those behind free-to-play games, prioritize monetization.
I think some interactive entertainment companies, typically not the console companies, but some of the free-to-play companies, have focused entirely on monetization and, ‘creativity as a necessary but annoying pre-condition to monetization.’ And we just don’t look at it that way at all. Monetization stems organically from creativity. And so the more that we give consumers to do that they love doing, the more likely they are to spend money while they’re doing it.
We’re also told that NBA 2K games have a “really high pay rate.”
What do you make of Zelnick’s comments?
[Source: GameSpot(1)(2)]
