14 DAY TRIAL // Strauss Zelnick, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Take Two Interactive, has said that the price of video games that are created specifically for tablets could be as high as for those experiences that are designed with home consoles in mind, as long as the quality is similar.
He stated, “At the end of the day, we are interested in creating economic value, and what we intend to do is make something and sell it to millions and millions of people, and sell it at a high price.”
He added, “You don’t want to spend lots and lots of money to make something you are going to sell to a small amount of people at a low price.”
He was in part talking about the Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars title, which was launched on the iPhone and was pretty successful but did not have a big impact on the Take Two business because of its low price point.
When asked point blank whether Take Two should charge 40 dollars for a video game that is created only for tablets he answered “yes”, adding that as long as the potential gamer market in the tablet space is big enough Take Two is ready to spend the development money needed.
The executive was careful to distinguish between the iPhone and other smartphones and tablets, saying that the phone and its screen was not suited for long term gaming commitments, which meant that the much lower price for game apps was justified.
At the moment Take Two has no public development projects aimed at tablets but the next Grand Theft Auto, which might be launched during 2012, might also have a spin off for those platforms.
The most recent release from Take Two is Duke Nukem Forever, a game that has been finished by developer Gearbox and which was not well received by critics.