Take-Two CEO Says Price Hike In Next-Gen Games Reflect Quality Of Experience

After Take-Two Interactive said that it will price “NBA 2K21” at $70, Ubisoft said that its next-generation releases for this holiday season will remain at $60.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke to GamesIndustry.biz about their price increase and if he thought that Ubisoft not raising prices would affect Take-Two Interactive’s bottom line.

"There hasn't been a price increase for frontline titles for a really long time, despite the fact that it costs a great deal more to make those titles," Zelnick replied.

"And we think with the value we offer consumers...and the kind of experience you can really only have on these next-generation consoles, that the price is justified. But it's easy to say that when you're delivering extraordinary quality, and that's what our company prides itself on doing," he said.

Pressed further on the matter of Ubisoft and whether he thought that it was important that the rest of the publishing industry for AAA games need to meet a consensus for a price hike, Zelnick said that Take-Two only speaks for itself.

"Obviously, we don't speak for the industry and the industry naturally does not coordinate on these matters, to say the very least,” he said. “The pricing has to reflect the quality of the experience, and we aim to provide the best experiences in the business. And from our point of view, it's an extremely modest price change given that prices haven't changed for a very long time."

Speaking ahead of the company's Q1 earnings release, Zelnick was also asked if he felt that the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in a global economic recession could affect the adoption of next-gen consoles, Zelnick said that historically, Take-Two Interactive has never called a situation like this either way.

"We will make our titles available on the best platforms that are out there,” Zelnick answered. “We expect great things from these consoles, we, of course, are going to be supportive, and we've already said that we have ‘NBA 2K21’ coming for the new generation and that we have ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ coming in fiscal 2022 for next-generation consoles. We haven't made any other announcements, however."

During the actual earnings call, GamesIndustry.biz reports that Zelnick confirmed that Take-Two Interactive would be deciding and announcing pricing of next-generation software on a "title-by-title basis," implying that not all next-generation games would necessarily get the $10 price hike.