Transition to next-generation consoles to result in casualties, believes Take-Two CEO
Different companies view change in a different manner, with some of them considering it as an opportunity, while others viewing it as one of the biggest threats to the survival of their business.
The video game ecosystem is no different, with the transition to a new hardware open a wide range of opportunities for some publishers, while sending others six feet under.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick believes no differently.
Speaking at the Credit Suisse Technology Conference, the company executive stated that the transition to next-generation consoles is bound to leave behind a few causalities.
He asserted that the publishers need to prepare themselves for the next-console cycle, as a failure to do that would result in their demise.
Giving the example of his own company, Zelnick said that Take-Two has been putting a lot of focus on the quality of games and concentrating on maintaining financial stability.
This is something that not only keeps the company for now, but has enabled it to adapt to console transition.
He noted that publishers that did not take any precaution in the past or were struggling to hold their own while catering to a certain console ended up dying when a new console was introduced to the market.
"If you're not capitalized for the transition, you can find out that you're not there for the transition," Zelnick said. "And historically, in every transition that's occurred in this business, one or two third-parties have gone out of business. Last time
around it was Midway and a couple of others. Reasonable people can argue about which one it'll be this time. I have my own point of view, which I haven't exactly been quiet about. We make sure we're not on the list of casualties; to the contrary, we're on
the list of winners."
The Grand Theft Auto publisher CEO did not point out any specific company that he expects to die once the next-generation console era arrives.
In an interview earlier this year, he had predicted that Saint’s Row and Darksiders publisher THQ would be dead within six months.
The prediction leaves hardly any doubt about THQ being one of the companies that Zelnick was talking about while speaking about the console transition causalities.
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