Take-Two to Tackle Downloadable Content

[Logan Frederick]

Take-Two to Tackle Downloadable Content

Take-Two's CEO has spoken on his company's plans for selling games over networks through micro-transactions, downloadable content and episodic games.

Speaking at the Piper Jaffray consumer conference in New York yesterday, Take-Two Interactive Chief Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick laid out plans to take advantage of online distribution.

A major route Take-Two will explore is episodic releases. To balance the risk of selling retail games, Take-Two hopes to "turn packaged goods partially into a subscription business, and drive some of the volatility out."

From a revenue perspective, digital distribution holds promise for obtaining profits.

Zelnick commented, "If we can get a good model for episodic content for high quality titles, that should be a pretty profitable business because there are no hard goods associated with it."

Microtransactions must be worthwhile purchases, proclaimed Zelnick, and should provide valuable content.

He continued, "You can't pull content out of a console game and the sell it to people later; it's not a good experience."

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5015146/zelnick-take+two-experimenting-with-microtransactions]

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[Alone Disciple]

I wonder if episodic content prices will drop over time too like standard games. For example, say you bought "Mass Effect" at $59.99 and it's recent DLC for 600 MP. When that game eventually makes 'Platinum Hits' status and sells for $29.99, could the DLC on older episodes also drop, say to 300 MP for older ones?

I may wait and purchase games knowing that future content will also drop in price.