With the release of Grand Theft Auto VI approaching, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has been giving interviews to various outlets. Recently, the Business Insider Live YouTube channel published a recording of a conversation where he shared a story related to in-game purchases in the company’s projects.
For example, his own wife became a fan of Words with Friends and plays with other family members every evening. And one day she decided to ask Strauss Zelnick to gift her some in-game currency:
Anyway, she got hooked on Match Factory, and late one evening she said, “I want some free game currency for Match Factory.” And the development team for that game is in Turkey, where it was already several hours later than our time [an 8-hour time difference with the US]. So, I texted them, and they credited her some currency…
His wife was thrilled and went off to play Words with Friends. The next evening, as Strauss Zelnick was already falling asleep, she came to him again with a request: “I’ve run out of all the currency you got me. Could I get a little more?” However, the generosity was a one-time deal.
The Take-Two boss told her to pay for in-game purchases herself from then on: “Just pay with your own ******** credit card already. What are you even talking about? No, no more free currency.”
Zelnick used this story to illustrate recurrent consumer spending—which currently accounts for “nearly 100%” of Take-Two’s revenue.