What if the future of video games was no longer in consoles? In any case, this is what suggests Strauss ZelnickCEO of Take-Two Interactivein an interview broadcast on November 18 on CNBC. Guest of the show Squawk Boxhe delivered a candid view on the evolution of the video game industry, declaring: “I think that the market is evolving towards the PC and that the sector is turning towards open rather than closed”.
A comment that revives an old debate between PC and console players, at a time when the publishing giant – at the origin of series like Grand Theft Auto Or NBA 2K — remains one of the pillars of the console market, while maintaining a strong presence on Steam.
Take-Two, heading towards a multiplatform strategy?
Although most of Take-Two’s titles are released first on consoles, Zelnick sees further: “But if you look at the console as a product and not as a system, then the idea of a very rich game, which you participate in for hours on the big screen, will never disappear.”
In other words, for the CEO, the console experience still has a future — but as a gaming medium, not as a closed ecosystem. An important distinction at a time when Microsoft is banking on the cloud and Valve is preparing to launch a Steam Machinea sort of mini-home console compatible with the entire Steam PC catalog.
The timing of this statement is not insignificant. While GTA 6 has still not been officially announced on PC, the memory of GTA 5 — which only arrived on computers two years after consoles — leaves a bitter taste for some players. However, the signals of a strategic refocusing towards the PC are increasing: Xbox recently announced that it wanted to make its games more accessible on computers, and Microsoft seems more and more open to the idea of a future without hardware exclusives.
A change of tone in the industry
Zelnick’s assertion comes at a time when traditional barriers between platforms are beginning to fall. Exclusives are increasingly temporary, and cross-platform games dominate the charts. By opting for an “opening” of the market, Take-Two seems to be positioning itself to capitalize on a growing PC audience, boosted by online games, mods, and freedom of use.
This vision could be confirmed quickly if GTA 6still shrouded in mystery, ends up being announced simultaneously on all platforms. But for the moment, it is above all the speech of the CEO which marks a major inflection: that of a giant of the sector which no longer sees the future as a war of consoles, but as an open world where the PC becomes central again.