Take Two's New Chairman Reassures Investors

Via Gamasutra, an article at TheStreet.com talking with the interim CEO of Take Two Interactive. In the wake of the chaos of the board overthrow, Strauss Zelnick is taking pains to reassure investors that stability and security are now the company's goals. He also pointed out that his position as CEO is a short-term situation: "Before we seek to fill the CEO slot we want to stabilize morale, develop our strategy and improve the structure of the company... So, I don't think we will have a new CEO right away but I would guess we have someone in the chair permanently within the next 12 months."

Comments

Work to be done first...

[Dareth]

"Before we seek to fill the CEO slot we want to stabilize morale, develop our strategy and improve the structure of the company... So, I don't think we will have a new CEO right away but I would guess we have someone in the chair permanently within the next 12 months."

I agree, there is way too much work to be done for a CEO to be getting all involved and being in the way. Let the professionals handle it. Once that is done, find somebody to hold the chair in the big office down and to keep the rust off the IT help desk.

He'll handle it his way.

[Rob T Firefly]

The next series of planning meetings will take place in the chairman's office, over some nice hot coffee..

Re:He'll handle it his way.

[Pyrrhic Diarrhea]

In GTA4, that meeting will include some extra sweet cigars along with that hot coffee.

Creative? I doubt it.

[Red Flayer]

Moving forward, the goal, says Zelnick, is to ensure Take-Two becomes the most efficient and most creative of all game companies in the market.

Efficient == layoffs.

Creative == BS to ameliorate the 'efficiency' move.

In TFA, Zelnick mentions 2K Sports as being a prime way for Take-Two to diversify their income stream (from the GTA franchise). I see high-efficiency (in terms of annual releases relatively cheap to produce) low-risk sports games in my crystal ball.

Personally, I think "most efficient" and "most creative" are mutually exclusive. We'll see assets thrown into low-risk ventures (efficiency) with occasional purchase of or deals with smaller studios (creativity). Throw in all the comments about stability, and to me that says low-risk as well.

IANAGIBA (Games Industry Business Analyst), but I play one on slashdot.

It's so true...

[MeanderingMind]

...it hurts.

Ummm...

[badasscat]

In the wake of the chaos of the board overthrow, Strauss Zelnick is taking pains to reassure investors that stability and security are now the company's goals. He also pointed out that his position as CEO is a short-term situation

Am I the only one that sees the contradiction in this?

What about the lawsuit against THAT Idiot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are they going to allow the lawsuit against "The IDIOT that does not need to be named"? I believe it should go ahead as it was, or are they planning on dropping that now?

Reassuring investors

[91degrees]

Well, that can't be hard. A speech along the lines of "I may be a scheming weasel, a thief and a compulsive liar, but I'm still still more reputable than the last guy" would probably do the job.

Re:Creative? I doubt it.

[badasscat]

Personally, I think "most efficient" and "most creative" are mutually exclusive.

Only if you think all great art is produced by committee.

Anyone who works in any creative field will tell you that the more cooks in the kitchen, the more watered-down any creative idea is going to be. A singular creative vision (provided it's coming from someone who actually has one) will always be both more creative and more efficient than ideas formed and executed by large groups.

Having said that, I wouldn't say Take 2 is bloated from a development standpoint. I don't know who they plan to cut in order to foster this creativity, but they don't have a lot of visionaries to spare over there.

What I think he *might* have been saying is that they will cut back on their production of shovelware in order to concentrate more on what they see as their high end franchises. That means most likely ditching one of their 2 non-RS labels - either Global Star or 2K Games (not 2K Sports). That doesn't mean every single game on the cut label will also go; the worthy titles will just move over to the unaffected label. But it would streamline ops a bit.

Re:Creative? I doubt it.

[Red Flayer]

Only if you think all great art is produced by committee.

I don't. It depends on how you handle creative staff. A lot of cooks in their own kitchens fosters creativity. The thing is, he keeps talking about stability, and that means (to me) reduced risk, which means less focus on creativity and more focus on established breadwinners, as you point out.

What I think he *might* have been saying is that they will cut back on their production of shovelware in order to concentrate more on what they see as their high end franchises

I agree -- but they have to be careful not to accidentally throw out the baby with the bathwater, to keep using the pithy metaphors :). That shovelware not only hones developers' skills, but allows them to try out new things, which helps with creativity in established franchises they can;t be too risky with.