Take-Two Interactive has been providing some serious discounts on its catalogue titles recently. You probably heard about GTA V being made available for free on the Epic Games Store until May 21, and it's also temporarily reduced NBA 2K20 for Xbox One by a massive 95% on the Microsoft Store in some regions.
In a recent earnings call, the company was questioned about this. In regards to both Grand Theft Auto V and NBA 2K, Chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked what the thinking was behind "lowering barriers to entry" for these titles:
"Grand Theft Auto V is a seven year old title. Obviously, it's been offered at lower price points than its initial release price point. And we do have obviously online offering and there our monetization opportunities within that offering.
So specific promotions with specific outlets with specific deals behind them can make sense to us. And we do believe that it's a great idea in general to grow the audience, grow engagement, grow users and with that will come more net bookings and will come more profits. So that was the thesis behind it. We're very, very selective in those kinds of promotions and they typically are only available for limited periods of time when they make sense for catalog titles."
In regards to NBA 2K20 specifically, Zelnick also revealed that consumer engagement with NBA 2K remained at record levels throughout fiscal 2020, with daily active users growing 13% and MyTeam users increasing nearly 50%. The game has sold over 12 million units to date, and the company expects the lifetime units recurrent consumer spending and net bookings for NBA 2K20 will be the highest ever for a 2K sports title.
Have you picked up NBA 2K20 for £2.49? What are your thoughts on Zelnick's comments? Let us know below.
[source fool.com]
Comments 4
Yes, they obviously hope to lure customer's in with a low entry point, hoping they enjoy the game enough to spend more money on the micro transaction's...
Also, the game has been out for about 8 month's, being a yearly release it's time is running out for them to make money off the game... It's a bit of a final push to make some more dollar while they can...
Lastly, once 2K21 releases they will know 2K20 is going to go down in price regardless, so reducing it to £2.49 now is not really that drastic a measure..
12 Million units for 2k20, Wow that's a huge deal..
Games with microtransactions (as in, enabled repeatable purchases of in game currency or usable item, or random lootbox mechanic) should have a free to play entry model. I'd even advocate for it to be a law. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo really should be taking a stand here (though MS won't because while Sony and Nintendo have shown restraint, MS has gone full douchbag and actually ruined some of their best games trying to cram in microtransactions).
Horse armour was a joke, but at least you paid one time for one guaranteed item, and you had that item across all playthroughs.
Between the base game, season passes/DLC, preorder bonuses, and microtransactions, publishers have become far too grubby. (and remember this is on top of the failed attempts like online passes, or industry standard practices like heavy crunch, huge dev cycle layoffs, or withheld bonuses.)
Because many 2K games are basically free to play titles in all but actual price these days, at least now they're admitting it, well until the next game costs £60 that is
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