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Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick Says Next-Gen Backward Compatibility Is a 'Benefit' but Not a 'Must-Have'

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
www.ign.com

Take-Two CEO Says Next-Gen Backward Compatibility Is a 'Benefit' but Not a 'Must-Have' - IGN

With recent rumors swirling around the potential for a successor to the Nintendo Switch, many fans and developers have been concerned about a possible lack of backward compatibility for such a console. And while the verdict hasn't quite been delivered on whether or not a "Switch 2" would have...
www.ign.com www.ign.com

Speaking to IGN ahead of the company's Q1 earnings announcement, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that he felt backwards compatibility was "a benefit to consumers." However, he added that he'd "be surprised if platforms didn't offer that with an upgrade that is sort of mid-cycle, however I'm not certain it's a must-have."

Zelnick's response was a curious one - my initial question had mentioned upcoming rumored console upgrades (specifically rumors of a PS5 Pro), but had honed in on asking about a Nintendo Switch successor specifically. So I followed up by asking him if he considered the Nintendo Switch to be "mid-cycle."

Zelnick replied: "Remains to be seen."

Now, an imminent successor to the Switch is still fully in the "rumor" phase, even if those rumors are steadily growing more credible, so it's understandable that Zelnick isn't interested in saying anything that might accidentally reveal specifics of a new console before Nintendo has something to say about it. But I did ask him if Take-Two would be an early supporter of a new Nintendo system as they were with the Nintendo Switch, to which he replied, "almost certainly."
 
H

HL3.exe

Member
A bit tone deaf. Sure, it's not a automatic process and work needs to be put in by the console manufacturers, they see this as a sunken cost with solid monetization loop.

But in recent years there has been a push preservation in games which backwards compatibility plays a big role in.

His quote reads like a late-stage capitalism statement. 'Every year need to have higher profits than the last, and it's slowly destroying game-development and interesting investments/risks.'
 
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Quasicat

Quasicat

Member
…and as usual Zelnick doesn’t speak for me when it comes to what I see as someone who loves gaming. He doesn’t love gaming, all he wants is to get the most profits he can from it, like all companies do.
I know that he has shareholders he needs to keep happy, but I just wish he would shut the hell up when he gives his “opinion”.
 
nightmare-slain

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
This is coming from the cunt who ruined Rockstar. It was him that pushed them to "monetize GTA between releases".

Of course he is going to say it's not a must have because he wants people to buy stupid fucking ports like RDR to Switch/PS4 lmao. Why let people play games through BC when you can just charge them full price?

He can go take a fuck to himself.
 
mansoor1980

mansoor1980

Member
problem neogaf?
-999x-999.gif
 
lh032

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
because people would just buy the new version of the same game lol. What a smart man ; )
 
Doctor Hades

Doctor Hades

Member
dreamstation said:
Of course he would say that. He wants to sell you the same game over and over again.

Backwards compatibility along with full cross play is a must going forward. I'd be pissed if they don't continue doing both for each new generation.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The reason that a 60 fps version of Red Dead Redemption 2 does not exist on Xbox Series X or PS5 is because Take 2/Rockstar will be looking at selling a remastered version at full-price at some point in the future.
 
H

Hypereides

Member
ManaByte said:
Take Two is worse than EA ever was.
Click to expand...
I really hope some people start to wake up to how equally horrible Take2/Zelnick is. He managed to affect Rockstar during his tenure too. Just because he largely manages to avoid the spotlight doesn't make him less of a parasite.
 
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S

SHA

Member
HL3.exe said:
A bit tone deaf. Sure, it's not a automatic process and work needs to be put in by the console manufacturers, they see this as a sunken cost with solid monetization loop.

But in recent years there has been a push preservation in games which backwards compatibility plays a big role in.

His quote reads like a late-stage capitalism statement. 'Every year need to have higher profits than the last, and it's slowly destroying game-development and interesting investments/risks.'
Click to expand...
You forget to say it destroys you precious memory with the game, R* is cursed, I don't really get it but it is what it is.
 
Fbh

Fbh

Gold Member
Jee I wonder why the CEO of the company that's about to release a low effort remaster of a 13 years old game for nearly full price doesn't think too highly about backwards compatibility.
Dude probably has wet dreams about a non backwards compatible Ps5 and SX where they could just port over GTA5 and sell another 40 million copies for $60-
 
H

hussar16

Member
I think at some point we should understand these people in charge are not gamers but men in suits who party on boats with pretty girls who don't have time to think about us nerds and every little thing we want.thats life and it's ok
 
deriks

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Microsoft and Sony proved that you can just upgrade the machine and past shit will run for the most part
 
FeralEcho

FeralEcho

Member
balls of snow said:
It would eat into his multi million dollar bonus since he cant sell the same game again.
Maybe we need ai to replace the ceo and not the devs.
Click to expand...
Would be quite easier too since they're all so fucking useless anyway, they're like leeches for money.Only there to sponge the profits.
 
W

Woggleman

Member
There is a rumor that the Strauss character in RDR2 is partly based on him and I can understand why. He ruined what used to be one of my favorite studios.
 
Mr Hyde

Mr Hyde

Member
Greediest CEO in the industry, even more so than Wilson, Kotick and Ryan. But in the end, all CEOs are cut from the same cloth. Fleece their customers through the nose to maximize profits. They do it because they can, the casual audience eats it up with pre-orders without second thoughts. And then begs for seconds, even if the games are broken at launch.
 
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