The hardware prices of PS5, Xbox and Nintendo are constantly rising, and players’ wallets are almost exhausted, but Take-Two Interactive obviously does not lose sleep because of this. At the latest investor conference, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick admitted that rising console prices are “not a good thing for anyone,” but he did not think it would be a hindrance to the company’s business. The reason is simple: Take-Two has a masterpiece like “GTA 6” in its hands!
Hosts are getting more and more expensive, but Take-Two says they’re not afraid?
Due to memory supply and cost pressure brought by the AI industry, game hardware prices have continued to rise in recent years, and PS5, Xbox and Nintendo hardware have all been affected. Zelnick said that it would be better for the gaming industry if the price of the console was lower and players had more devices in their hands, but Take-Two does not believe that the current price increase trend will slow down its business. He said that the company believes that it is providing a gaming experience that players really want to play, so it is not worried that rising hardware prices will significantly affect demand.
PCs are becoming more and more important, but consoles are not so irreplaceable.
What’s more noteworthy is that Zelnick also talked about Take-Two’s platform strategy. He revealed that for a game that was launched on both PC and console 20 years ago, PC might only account for 1% to 2% of Take-Two’s multi-platform sales; now this proportion has grown to about 40% to 50%, and he expects it to continue to rise in the future. In other words, even if future consoles are so expensive that some players will be put off, Take-Two still has the PC path to take.
Is the console too expensive to afford? Then stream directly!
Zelnick even believes that if console prices continue to rise in the future, it may eventually push players to switch to cloud streaming games. And as games become more and more dependent on Internet connections, he also believes that the importance of physical discs is declining. For players who are already online, downloading games directly seems to be more convenient than purchasing physical discs.
This also makes the market environment that “GTA 6” is about to face very interesting: consoles are becoming more and more expensive, and physical games are becoming less and less popular, but Take-Two has a “GTA 6” in its hands that players will find it difficult not to play.