T2 explains why GTA did not release mobile games: not all IPs are suitable for porting
As a major publisher with many large IPs, including “GTA”, “Mafia”, “Bioshock” and “Borderlands”, Take Two has not been as frequent as other major companies. The game is trying to be brought to mobile devices. A few days ago, the company’s CEO explained the reason behind this.
Company president Strauss Zelnick recently told The Wrap that not all console games are mobile-friendly, producing only one example of a large franchise that has successfully moved from console to mobile: Call of Duty. Zelnick said the company has the idea of developing titles specifically for mobile devices, rather than porting the games currently owned by Take Two.
In the interview he said: “Not every IP is suitable for mobile devices. Not every IP should be a host production. It depends on every IP. Conceptually, we are happy, but every (IP) It’s all special.”
That being said, Zelnick said Take-Two is looking at the company’s roster of IPs and trying to make smart, strategic bets on how best to fit the mobile family in the right way. Take-Two’s recent $12.7 billion acquisition of mobile gaming giant Zynga was the most expensive acquisition in the video game industry before Microsoft’s $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard. Zelnick said he’d be happy to bring some of Take-Two’s “core” IP to Zynga for a mobile game adaptation, but it’s too early to talk about specifics.
“Specific titles? I’m unlikely to talk about specific titles. We won’t even reveal them post-development until we’ve got them ready and close to official release,” he responded: “We’re working on all of our IP. Combined, we’ve said we’d love to give Zynga some of the core Take-Two IP to make a hit mobile product. [But] it’s a very difficult thing to do.”
In the same interview, Zelnick said that Activision Blizzard’s success in bringing the Call of Duty franchise to mobile is part of what he calls “a great expression of IP” for Call of Duty on mobile. Activision will launch another game on this basis: “Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile”.
When looking at the entire gaming industry, Zelnick sees this as an anomaly. He believes that not all console game adaptations for mobile devices have achieved the level of success that Call of Duty enjoyed.
“But that’s just one [special case],” he said. First, mobile as a business has a very low hit rate. Most of the time, if you’re trying to take IP from one platform and move it to another, it’s It’s hard to create success.”
“We’re going to do that too, and I hope we’re going to be very selective about it and focus on making sure we maximize our chances of success. But we’re not going to be all-in (not going to bring all IP to mobile) ).” In contrast, Activision Blizzard has publicly stated that in the future they will bring all of their game series to mobile devices.