In the lead-up to Grand Theft Auto 6‘s release, which analysts expect to be the biggest entertainment launch in history by dollar value, The Wall Street Journal‘s tech conference is wondering why Take-Two, which owns Rockstar Games, doesn’t have more hits. CEO Strauss Zelnick looked as confused as you are.
The question came up in the context of Take-Two’s stock being down nearly 20 percent from its peak late last year. With the gaming publisher about to set records, why are investors so skittish? Zelnick essentially responded by saying he doesn’t count his chickens before they’ve hatched. He believes the fundamentals of the company are strong and will be proven out once GTA 6 is out in the wild. That’s when The Wall Street Journal‘s deputy media editor, Jessica Toonkel, pressed the executive on the company’s perceived challenges.
Toonkel: Is there a concern? I mean, I think there is a concern that this is your big hit and that you don’t have enough hits in your library.
Zelnick: Uhhhh…
Toonkel: I mean can you, how do you like, knock that down?
Zelnick: Well look, we have 15 franchises that have each sold at least 5 million in individual releases. I think we have the best collection of owned intellectual property in the video game business and I think that’s reflected in our top line, our bottom line, and our market cap. So, um, I guess the way I respond to it is, like, examine the facts. I don’t know.
I mean, look, we have in addition to Grand Theft Auto, we have Red Dead Redemption, a massive title. It sold over 65 million in the most recent release. Red Dead Online, Grand Theft Auto Online. We have NBA 2K, which is the second biggest sports title worldwide, the biggest in North America. WWE 2K, Bioshock, Borderlands, Civilization, and then on the mobile side, Words with Friends, Empires and Puzzles and Good Poker, and hundreds of other titles. It’s a pretty good story.
The exchange has since gone viral as gamers yuk it up over the seeming absurdity of it and how it plays into stereotypes about mainstream media still not having a clue about gaming. Look, I don’t think it was a completely ridiculous question to ask, even if it could have been framed a little better. No entertainment company wants to be tied to the mast of one single hit, even if it could turn out to be the single biggest ever. It is also true that the rest of Take-Two’s line-up faces some serious questions.
Borderlands 4 and Civilization 7 have not been unblemished, runaway hits the way some past entries in those franchises were. It’s been a decade and 2K still can’t get a new Bioshock out the door. Project Ethos, a live-service multiplayer game that many would struggle to pick out of a line-up, has not been cheap and continues to spin its wheels.
At the same time, many other video game companies and platform holders would love to have Take-Two’s problems. They would, I’m sure, trade all of those other potential headaches for annual money-printing machines like NBA 2K and WWE 2K, as well as the ongoing golden goose that is GTA Online. Two of the top-five best-selling games of all time belong to Take-Two. GTA 6 will probably become the third. Nice work if you can get it.
