Take-Two Blames $70 Price Point of Next-Gen Games on Sky-High Production Costs

Tsing

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Image: Take-Two



As many of you know, major game publishers are scheming to pinch our wallets even harder in the coming generation by increasing the standard pricing of games from $59.99 to $69.99. Needless to say, nobody is a fan of this idea. While most of us have already made up our minds as to why this is happening (simple greed), Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has attempted to rationalize rising prices again in a new interview with Protocol. If Zelnick is to be believed, everything has to do with production costs, which have supposedly risen to ridiculous levels.



Protocol asked Zelnick why...
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Continue reading...


 
Uh huh... well lets look at that quarterly report and see if you're profitable.


GAAP net revenue grew 54% to $831.3 million, a fiscal first quarter record

GAAP net income per diluted share increased 88% to $0.77

GAAP net cash provided by operating activities for the three-months ended June 30, 2020 increased 310% to $445.4 million

Adjusted Unrestricted Operating Cash Flow (Non-GAAP) for the three-months ended June 30, 2020 increased 595% to $324.0 million

Net Bookings grew 136% to $996.2 million, a fiscal first quarter record

Company raises outlook for fiscal year 2021



Well look at that... even at the MEASLY 60 dollar price point you managed to grow your NET income by 88%!!!

Tell me again how razor thin your profit margins are and how you're barely surviving as a company. Oh please master story teller.

This guy is so full of crap he could make potatoes grow in a desert.
 
There's going to come a day of reckoning when people are no longer entertained and the crying of poverty by the billionaire set will be the last things they utter.
 
How can production costs be so high if in the case of sports games it's basically the same game as the last five years but with different names? There's no way you can tell me that changing some names is massive production costs.
 
SmokeRngs said:
How can production costs be so high if in the case of sports games it's basically the same game as the last five years but with different names? There's no way you can tell me that changing some names is massive production costs.
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See their most recently quarterly report. IT's not... BUT to be the devils advocate a moment.

1. Professional Athletes in some cases with savvy agents own their own likeness. So when video games want to put them in a game they have to pay them a licensing cost or just not use their likeness or name.
2. Re doing the art at higher quality is expensive and can't be just done on the fly. The Uncanny valley is still a thing.
3. Paying crazy amounts of money to C level executives as well as out of control stock options is expensive.
 
Publishers have no one to blame but themselves for skyrocketing AAA budgets.
 
Honestly, I don't really care what they charge for a AAA game out the gate. Plenty of games are already at $70 and up.... espeically if you look at "Digital Deluxe" editions and "Founders Editions". I just choose not to buy them until they hit the price point I'm willing to pay. There's always a sale after the release. And there are plenty of games that are releasing under the $50 price, even from the AAA publishers with big IPs" Star Wars Squadrons, for instance.

I'm sure there are plenty that are willing to pay the Day 0 markup, and for those that are - more power to them. My pre-order/Day 0 days are done with games. If that number isn't enough, then the market will self correct and prices will come back down.
 
Grimlakin said:
See their most recently quarterly report. IT's not... BUT to be the devils advocate a moment.

1. Professional Athletes in some cases with savvy agents own their own likeness. So when video games want to put them in a game they have to pay them a licensing cost or just not use their likeness or name.
2. Re doing the art at higher quality is expensive and can't be just done on the fly. The Uncanny valley is still a thing.
3. Paying crazy amounts of money to C level executives as well as out of control stock options is expensive.
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Sports games in particular have high costs because of licensing, not development. They have to pay the leage, sometimes the teams and even individual players.
Eveybody wants a piece of the pie and don't want to share it.
 
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