As Take-Two Interactive reported robust outcomes for Q3 FY 2025 and readied buyers for a blockbuster yr that features the discharge of Rockstar’s lengthy anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6, Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive, took the time to speak to GamesIndustry.biz concerning the outcomes and among the greatest points dealing with the business in 2025.
The interview under has been edited for brevity and readability.
Take-Two has a various portfolio this yr, might you communicate concerning the steadiness between extra annualized properties and the area you give artistic groups for extra long run tasks?
It is a technique that we started speaking about after we took over the corporate in 2007. So it has been a very long time in improvement and we have had years the place, , the place we have been in a position to execute it reasonably effectively and different years the place we simply have not been in a position to do it, however our view has at all times been that the one titles that actually should be annualised are chosen variety of sports activities leisure titles and just about every little thing else shouldn’t be annualised for 2 causes;
Primary, to just remember to put out as good a product as potential to please your customers and to construct a franchise versus dilute a franchise over time.
And secondly, to create anticipation, to create want. And if one thing that is coming like clockwork yearly, I feel it is more durable to create that anticipation and want. We’re seeing that extraordinary anticipation with regard to GTA 6, for instance. however I feel you are additionally going to see anticipation with regard to Mafia. Proper now, right this moment, in Early Entry, we have seen the large enthusiasm across the Civilisation 7.
So after we get it proper, we have now a yr like the subsequent calendar yr, this calendar yr shaping as much as be, the place we have now beloved franchises bringing again iterations that do take years, generally a few years to create. And likewise having our annualised portfolio, and then while you layer on prime of that catalogue, our stay providers and our cell enterprise, we really feel like we’re in a fairly good place.
May you discuss extra concerning the cell enterprise, as a result of it feels as if generally folks overlook what a powerhouse Zynga is behind the scenes. How have you ever seen that cell market shifting?
Nicely, the excellent news is that we’re again in development mode. So, , mid- 2022, the cell enterprise started to have a downturn actually for the primary time in its historical past and now the business is again to modest development. In our case, our present client spending was up 6% within the quarter, yr over yr and that was pushed by the addition of Match Manufacturing facility, which is that this terrific hit that our studio Peak has created and which continues to develop. However we have now seen some moderation and some legacy titles as effectively, so the enterprise just isn’t with out its challenges.
That stated, with the addition of Zynga, we’re an organization that may do round 5 and a half plus billion in internet bookings this yr. We’re a worthwhile enterprise. We anticipate to be very, very worthwhile and sequentially to set information for internet bookings in fiscal 2026 and 2027 and with out the cell portfolio, that would not be the case.
Additionally, we have now to be the place the buyer is, and our cell enterprise addresses a considerably totally different client than our console and PC enterprise addresses in that our cell enterprise tends to skew extra feminine and tends to skew older, so now we serve each interactive leisure client on earth in a single type or one other.
How is Take-Two as a enterprise feeling concerning the introduction of tariffs and the probabilities round that?
Nicely, our business affiliation, the ESA, has been weighing in and normally, and I feel most economists would agree, a world with out tariffs is a greater place.
Now, tariffs do play a job once they’re vital and they could possibly be vital if, for instance, a rustic is within the enterprise of dumping on different economies, however other than that scenario, typically talking, I’m a free dealer, so I feel like everybody else in enterprise, I am considerably involved about the potential for commerce wars, however I am inspired that we appear to be avoiding these with Mexico and Canada by means of dialogue and negotiation and I am cautiously optimistic that that may result in a superb consequence.
With reference to a few of Take-Two’s older properties there’s nonetheless an lively group round titles like GTA 5 and Purple Lifeless Redemption 2, is that simply Rockstar particular sauce or is it a direct results of the Take-Two means of managing these groups and the ecosystem?
Look, I feel Rockstar does have a particular sauce, I feel you see it mirrored in the truth that GTA 5 has bought in over 210 million items, Purple Lifeless Redemption 2 has bought in additional than 70 million items and GTA On-line stays this highly effective drive, although it has been available in the market over 10 years.
Rockstar, I feel, kind of alone within the enterprise, seeks perfection and we as a corporation, we hope, present the sources, human and monetary, to permit them to pursue what they’re enthusiastic about and to hunt perfection. So it is nothing extraordinary. Proper now Purple Lifeless On-line, for instance, has its highest concurrent customers on Steam ever, it is nothing wanting superb. Nobody else actually can inform that story and I feel that is as a result of nobody else has aggregated the expertise that Rockstar has aggregated. Additionally Rockstar has this extraordinary focus on two titles, on Purple Lifeless and on GTA, and we aren’t solely prepared however joyful to offer that assist as a result of that’s what Rockstar is enthusiastic about personally.
Lots of people are relieved to see GTA 6 continues to be on monitor for a fall 2025 launch, is there something you possibly can say about it in any respect at this level? And gossip or worries you wish to nip within the bud?
I have never heard any kind of gossip or worries, I feel on the contrary, I’ve heard loads of enthusiasm and as I prefer to say, we by no means declare success earlier than we have now it. All of us run scared, as a corporation we simply do. We’re trying over our shoulders at our competitors. They are not asleep, they are not ready for us to do one thing.
Now we have a mission that we take actually critically to create one of the best leisure properties on earth of any sort and Rockstar, I feel, embodies that mission. However people at Rockstar would say the identical factor, which is we’re doing the perfect we are able to. We’ll wait, we’ll see, and the outcomes will communicate for themselves.
One other scorching subject in the mean time, and you’ve got talked about it previously, is AI’s position within the business. What position does it play in Take-Two’s technique going ahead and are there any guardrails you assume the business must be contemplating by way of AI?
Synthetic intelligence is an oxymoron, there is not any such factor. Machine studying, machines do not study. These are handy methods to elucidate to human beings what appears like magic. The underside line is that these are digital instruments and we have used digital instruments perpetually. I’ve little doubt that what is taken into account AI right this moment will assist make our enterprise extra environment friendly and assist us do higher work, however it will not scale back employment.
On the contrary, the historical past of digital know-how is that know-how will increase employment, will increase productiveness, will increase GDP and I feel that is what is going on to occur with AI. I feel the online game enterprise will in all probability be on the main, if not bleeding, fringe of utilizing AI.
However by way of the guardrails, if you happen to imply, , not infringing on different folks’s mental property by, , poaching their LLMs, yeah, we’re not going to try this. Furthermore, if we did, we could not shield that, we would not have the ability to shield our personal IP. So after all, we’re aware of what know-how we use to guarantee that it respects others’ mental property and permits us to guard our personal. Other than that, I actually cannot consider any new guardrails that have to be applied.