I pressed him on the situation with Xbox specifically, and Zelnick reiterated his stance. Xbox's own moves will certainly inform their decision, he said, because they can't publish physical games on a console if it doesn't support them. But what it all comes down to is still consumer behavior.
Then, he added:
"It's not costly to master something for physical distribution. As long as you don't produce too much inventory, it's not costly...So this isn't a big decision for us. It was a big decision 30 years ago in the business when we had to produce cartridges, and you couldn't do anything with them...but today we can order a disc and five days later it can be on the shelf."
Finally, I asked Zelnick if he felt it was important to his business and the health of the video game market to have an Xbox console competing with PlayStation. He replied: "I think it's a benefit. Do I think ultimately it's a necessity? No. But I do think it's a benefit."
Take-Two reported net bookings of $1.34 billion in the last quarter, down 3% year-over-year, and 95% of which were digital. Grand Theft Auto 5 sold yet another five million copies, bringing it up to over 195 million total units, and NBA 2K24 crossed the 7 million units sold mark as well. The company lowered its fiscal outlook for the full year due to a mix of factors including the delay of No Rest for the Wicked, weakening mobile ad spend, and lower than expected performance of NBA 2K. The new outlook expects between $5.25 billion to $5.3 billion in net bookings.
Go catch em all’
