‘It’s been transformative for us’
Games likeGrand Theft Auto Vand companies like Take-Two have been making bank by giving players the opportunity to continue spending money beyond their initial one-time purchase. That kind of games-as-a-service approach isn’t going away in the triple-A space anytime soon; quite the opposite.
Speaking to investors, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick explained that we can expect more of this monetization strategy not just inGrand Theft Auto OnlineorNBA2K, but, well, everywhere. “There’s a lot of room for growth,” he said, as reported byGamasutra. “This is just the beginning.”
More to the point: “We’ve said that we aim to have recurrent consumer spending opportunities for every title that we put out at this company. It may not always be an online model, it probably won’t always be a virtual currency model, but there will be some ability to engage in an ongoing basis with our titles after release across the board.”
This continued push makes sense for publishers with large, active audiences. As part of Take-Two’sfiscal second quarter 2018 results, the company noted that “Recurrent consumer spending (virtual currency, add-on content and microtransactions) grew 66% year-over-year and accounted for 48% of total net revenue. The largest contributors to net revenue in fiscal second quarter 2018 wereNBA 2K17,Grand Theft Auto OnlineandGrand Theft Auto V,WWE SuperCardandWWE 2K17, andXCOM 2.”
Looking ahead, Take-Two will haveRed Dead RedemptionandBorderlands 3, two games that require little if any imagination to envision how “recurrent consumer spending” could fit into the picture.
Take-Two plans to only release games with ‘recurrent consumer spending’ hooks[Gamasutra]
