Speaking during Take-Two‘s earnings call earlier this week, the company’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick, revealed that it hasn’t seen evidence of consumer backlash to its $69.99 price tag for games.
An analyst observed during the call that there have been some examples of competitors to Take-Two having to offer a discount on some premium-priced games “within days and weeks” of their release. However, Zelnick hasn’t seen any major pushback in regards to Take-Two’s own $70 offerings.
We’re not seeing a pushback on frontline price. What we’re seeing is consumers are seeking to limit their spending by going either to the stuff they really, really care about, blockbusters, or to value, and sometimes it could be both. And the good news is, we have a bunch of blockbusters and we have a wonderful catalogue.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is one $70 PS5 and Xbox Series X/S game that didn’t quite meet expectations however, and the publisher ended up discounting it by 33% across all formats just one month after release.
The other news is we have a robust frontline release schedule and without regard to price, there has been some pressure, as a result, if a consumer sees something that’s interesting but not necessarily yet a huge blockbuster.
We think that will change. This is a growth business, and this is a unique market, and nothing that’s going on now is inconsistent with the view that we outlined during the pandemic. We said at that time that we were benefitting greatly from people being at home due to an odd turn of events.
Speaking in the same earnings call, Zelnick revealed that he fully expects Sony and Microsoft to release a mid-cycle console refresh. In addition, he revealed that nearly half of its upcoming slate over the next few years will be new IP.
[Source – VGC]