Take-Two: Game Pass day and date releases are a lost opportunity for publishers

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick is still skeptical about video game subscriptions, and agrees with Sony's opinion of the Xbox Game Pass model.

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The Xbox Game Pass model is a big hit among consumers who want to access Microsoft's first-party games with no extra cost. But for Sony and major players like Take-Two Interactive, who make hundreds of millions of dollars a year from premium game sales, the Game Pass model is just too disruptive. Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick says that day-and-date launches are actually a lost opportunity for publishers.

Although Grand Theft Auto V certainly has enjoyed a healthy earnings jump from its brief stint on Xbox Game Pass, the day one release cadence just isn't something that major publishers like Take-Two are willing to pursue. Zelnick shared his thoughts on subscriptions in a recent Q2 earnings call:

"I think the the secondary skepticism was whether or not it made sense to offer frontline titles day and date with titles on a subscription service. I don't think that ever made sense, I still don't think it makes sense.

"I believe it's not becoming obvious that it's just a lost opportunity for the publisher. So I don't want to speak for my friend Phil, but our views remain unchanged.

"There probably is a subscription business [that makes sense], it's a catalog business, it's probably best to aim at very avid consumers because those are the consumers who are interested in playing catalog titles and playing a whole bunch of different titles in a given month.

"But I don't think it's a mass-market service that supplants the interactive entertainment business as we know it at all. I don't think there's any evidence to the contrary at all."

These opinions line up with what Sony Interactive Entertainment's Jim Ryan said about the day-one Game Pass model in that it interrupts Sony's "virtuous cycle."

What's interesting is that on page 33 of a recent investors presentation, Take-Two Interactive lists streaming and cloud gaming as possible growth opportunities for the company. However based on Zelnick's comments, these models would align more towards Zynga and older games--not new mega-hits like Grand Theft Auto 6.

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