Take Two's Zelnick on Next-Gen Success

[Icemage]

Read this great interview with Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two and thought it'd be interesting to discuss:

Gamasutra - News - Four keys to next-gen success, according to Take-Two's Zelnick

There are four keys to success in a new console cycle, Zelnick believes -- owned intellectual property, top-tier technology, top-tier development talent and a strong balance sheet.

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"I don't aim to annualize our non-sports titles because I think you run the risk of burning out the consumer -- even if its very high quality [product]," he says. "Some of our competitors have had this trajectory where they extract a lot of value and the IP goes away. We're trying really hard to build permanent IP. And if you have to rest the title for a few years, over time you'll extract more value. ... We're not trying to create something good and market the hell out of it. We're trying to delight customers with something great -- and market hell out of it."

FINALLY some sanity from someone at the top of a publisher. While I don't believe Take-Two is always the smartest publisher on the planet, it's nice to see at least one person in a position of authority understands that the best way to nurture franchises is to give each of them some time to breathe.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Take Two's Zelnick on Next-Gen Success

Yeah I agreed with him on that point, not so much about the next round of consoles, though.

Activision, EA and Capcom are the worst about running an IP into the ground, followed closely by SE. Call of Duty, Spiderman, sports titles and Resident Evil all need a rest.

I was actually surprised The Amazing Spiderman was even up to speed with Arkham Asylum/City in terms of combat and even had a solid framerate and great sense of depth on 3DS, but then there was a terrible lack of polish in filter effect and the level design left a bit to be desired. The 3DS has a whole part of its chipset devoted to making fog effects look good, but they didn't even try to use it.

I coul imagine this and the console versions -assuming the combat was similar- could be a really great game to compete with Rocksteady's efforts, but Activision being Activision sland this having to coincide with s movie some of that potential is just lost. There some great ideas, really great ideas in this demo - so great that a second stick is not needed, that's how well some of The Amazing Spiderman 3DS is, but it's never going to get the polish and love it deserves because this is Activision.

It's sad. If those little things got fixed, the product as a whole only benefits. It's something even EA couldn't let slip by.

Even if these companies at least shook up the IPs a little, that would do a world of good. Nintendo's a tad heavy on the Mario stuff this year, but at least each offshoot of the IP is something different. Paper Mario is an RPG. NSMB2 is score attack driven while NSMBU is more geared toward speed runs. And I know even though there are two NSMB games this year, there probably won't be another set for a few more years.

There hasn't been a new Persona game in four years. That alone makes me confident Persona 5 will feel more fresh. Skyrim was worth the five years since Oblivion. Meanwhile practically every Suda51 game is a one-off or has a couple sequels at most (NMH3 is planned, but Shadows of the Damned, Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer is Dead fill the space between).

I think the RPG every other year is bad for Bioware. DA2 and ME3 suffered a bit because of it and they were just in over thier heads on SWTOR. I'd like to see them really given time to make something great... except they work for EA.

[Malacite]

Re: Take Two's Zelnick on Next-Gen Success

Ubisoft really needs to lay off Assassin's Creed for a while after 3 is out as well. It's really been overkill with the last 2 games.

At least they're good with Visceral and DICE however; BF3 has a lot of awesome DLC that both out now and on the horizon to keep things fresh until the next major entry (please, just don't do another Bad Company though) and Deadspice has only had a 2 entries thus far. I'm a little surprised that 3 is coming out this quickly however, so who knows - but they're a very good studio so I'm reserving judgment for now.

Funny how you failed to mention Nintendo however

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Take Two's Zelnick on Next-Gen Success

Battlefield games every other year, MoH dragged through the mud when there's not a BF game. Lombotomized survivor horror game every other year.

Still seems like an IP that's milked pretty hard.

[Icemage]

Re: Take Two's Zelnick on Next-Gen Success

Ubisoft really needs to lay off Assassin's Creed for a while after 3 is out as well. It's really been overkill with the last 2 games.

That's a bit unfair. Assassin's Creed is the only major franchise that Ubisoft is pushing hard; Rayman's doing well enough, and it's not like we're seeing a steady stream of Prince of Persia or Splinter Cell or Rainbow Six. They DO need to lay off AC for a bit after AC3, though, I agree.

At least they're good with Visceral and DICE however; BF3 has a lot of awesome DLC that both out now and on the horizon to keep things fresh until the next major entry (please, just don't do another Bad Company though) and Deadspice has only had a 2 entries thus far. I'm a little surprised that 3 is coming out this quickly however, so who knows - but they're a very good studio so I'm reserving judgment for now.

EA's cash-grabbing has gotten pretty awful lately. The only good spot is that they're still pushing new IP, and the amount of pushback on their retarded DLC policies and Origin have forced them to reposition on a number of issues. On the other hand, BBQ's right about Bioware suffering from too much time pressure.

Funny how you failed to mention Nintendo however

Nintendo's a horse of a different color. While they DO release a lot of games under the same monikers, they don't tend to release the same sort of game over and over in the same franchise, with the exceptions of Mario Party and New Super Mario Brothers (the latter of which I think really needs a rest and has no business being in the Wii U lineup in the state that it appears to be in right now; i.e. plays almost exactly like the recent DS and Wii editions).

And lest I forget, I still believe Activision is by far the most guilty of milking franchises to death. It's why I have steadfastly refused to buy any games by them in the past 3 years. The other publishers may do stupid things from time to time, but none of them are doing such irrevocable damage to their franchises that causes everyone to give up on them (not even EA's shenanigans with Bioware can compare to what happened to the Tony Hawk or Guitar Hero franchises, and will likely soon be happening to Call of Duty).


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Take Two's Zelnick on Next-Gen Success

Worth pointing out there were five years between Mario Party 8 and 9, with the exception of the DS entry.

I don't see how NSMBU "has no business" being a launch game. All impressions I heard regarding it were fairly solid. It's been said for to console and two handheld generation that Nintendo needed a Mario title at launch. Here it is, Mario's more unique outing (SM3DL) had to be out last year to help 3DS out. NSMBU is a move to appease the mainstream and core gamers early on in all territories because Pikmin 3 - as adored as Pikmin is - is not a system seller, but a title to appease a niche within thier core audience (and because Miyamoto wanted to do it). Eight years since Pikmin 2, which finally you it's Wii rerelease last week in the US.

I think what's being done with Mario right now is a tad shameless, but in Nintendo's position it very much needed for the moment. I'm much more jazzed for Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon personally. They bring a rare and humorous side to the Mario stuff the 2D and 3D platforming entries just don't.

I do hope, however, that aside from work on the next 3D platformer, that they give Mario 2D platformers a rest. I've yet to play one I've not enjoyed, but Id be lying if NSMB resonated with me like Yoshi's Island, Galaxy, Galaxy 2, World or SMB3 did.

I'm more interested in NSMB2 conceptually since its deviating from tradition a bit. Then again, they have that much more to show since that one hits in August and Wii U is likely in November.

Both could be good, I think NSMBU is at least stinger aesthetically than prior entries, but I can only go by shaky cam video impressions from e3 for now.

[DakAttack]

Re: Take Two's Zelnick on Next-Gen Success

Call of Duty owns the niche it's in, even if it is a terrible game. It's just what people fall back on when they have nothing else to play. People still play Black Ops and MW2.

[Malacite]

Re: Take Two's Zelnick on Next-Gen Success

I don't like to blanket activision like that though, much as I despise Kotick because they do still put out some really fun stuff, and I don't mean just Blizzard either; Transformers: War for Cybertron impressed the hell out of me. It had its flaws of course, but overall it's easily the best Transformers game I've ever seen and even stayed true to the canon. It was made by High Moon Studios, a tiny little known publisher that's only done like 5 games so far;

High Moon Studios - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


At the very least they proved you can take a major license and not just milk it/cheapen it like most people would expect. Looking forward to the sequel that was shown at E3.