CEO Strauss Zelnick talks used games
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick gave a talk at the Cowen Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, where he had a number of things to say about his company and the industry as a whole. Strauss brought up the used games fee that the Xbox One will reportedly have, and stated that “There’s no question that if Microsoft has figured out a way to tax used games, then we should get paid, too. It’s hard to imagine why they should and we shouldn’t.”
On the whole used games front in general though, Strauss believes pushing the quality of their products will help offset the sales of used games.
“Our view about used games has been, as opposed to whining or figuring out ways to punish the consumer for buying used games, we’ve figured out we better delight the consumer,” Zelnick stated.
“Let’s push up our quality, which you’ve seen in our Metacritic scores, and then let’s make sure to give people DLC, often free, three or four weeks out; which is the time you’re at risk for them trading in their game. If you can keep the game in consumer’s hands for 8 weeks, you almost don’t care anymore about used game sales because it’s the first 8 weeks that really nail you.”
Strauss added that he is hopeful that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will allow companies like Take-Two to participate in the used games market.
GTA parent publisher talks next-gen used games [GameSpot]
