The CEO of Take-Two Interactive appeared on Bloomberg, where he discussed the upcoming release of GTA VI and the company’s future. Zelnick was asked if he had considered selling the publisher, as “two of the biggest competitors” in the gaming industry recently did. Although specific companies were not named, he was most likely referring to Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts. The head of Take-Two sees no reason to follow their lead.
I think we’ve proven that we’re doing great as an independent company. We’re already a pretty big enterprise. We’ve reached the right scale, and we have a great balance sheet. By the end of this fiscal year, we should once again become a net-cash company. We are not in a situation where we need to be part of a larger organization in order to remain competitive.
The executive’s confidence is also bolstered by the publisher’s financial standing. According to him, pre-orders for GTA VI “continue to break records.” Analysts estimate the number of pre-ordered copies at more than 11 million.
In the entertainment business, scale matters, at least up to a point. With revenues below a billion dollars, it is hard to assemble a competitive creative team, secure global marketing and distribution, and survive the inevitable failures. However, once annual revenues significantly exceed a billion dollars—and we crossed that threshold long ago, forecasting $8–8.2 billion for the current fiscal year—further increases in scale do not necessarily lead to greater success.
Besides GTA, Take-Two owns franchises such as Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, and NBA 2K. By comparison, EA agreed to be sold for approximately $55 billion, after which the company took on about $20 billion in debt.