Take-Two’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick, expressed his desire to monetize 100% of the audience for the company’s mobile games. Currently, only less than 10% of players spend money on these games, while the rest play for free and move on. Zelnick aims to increase monetization numbers to reach the entire audience.
“We are fielding a game for 100% of the audience and monetizing 10% or so, perhaps a bit more, often a bit less. And it’s our view that we ought to be monetizing 100% of the audience,” states Zelnick.
However, Zelnick does not anticipate that 100% of mobile game users will make direct microtransaction purchases. Instead, Take-Two plans to leverage advertising to achieve full monetization.
“So if someone’s going to spend, that’s great. And if they’re not going to spend, then we ought to be able to monetize through advertising,” he explains. “The question is how do you do that and create a high-quality experience? And I think the answer is we can do that. We can distinguish among those audiences. We’re not there yet, but I think we’re moving in that direction.”
Recently, Take-Two expanded its mobile game business through the acquisition of Zynga for $12.7 billion, marking the largest completed acquisition in video game history. However, Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, though larger, is still pending.
Zelnick’s compensation is linked to the performance of microtransactions in Take-Two games. In 2022, Zelnick and Take-Two’s president received over $31 million in stock and incentives due to the success of microtransactions.
In related news, speculation continues to grow about the potential release of GTA 6 in 2024.
