eSports "more a promotional tool than anything else" - Zelnick
Take-Two CEO doesn't see trend as a profitable stand-alone business yet, believes physical goods will continue to be "lion's share" of revenue in future
While some publishers establish their own eSports divisions and appoint chief competition officers, Take-Two is approaching the competitive gaming trend with a bit more caution. Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz in advance of the company's financial earnings report today, CEO and chairman Strauss Zelnick said the field was promising, but still unproven.
"eSports we find very interesting," Zelnick said. "It is, however, still more a promotional tool than anything else. And most people see eSports as an opportunity to increase consumer engagement in their titles, and depending on the title, to increase consumer spending within the title."
To date, Take-Two's biggest eSports endeavor has been an NBA 2K tournament with 92,000 teams competing for a $250,000 prize. The final 16 teams are set to compete in a single-elimination tournament this weekend, with the finals taking place during the NBA Finals next month.
"It's just the beginning for us," Zelnick said of the tournament. "It's very gratifying so far, but we have yet to see it as a stand-alone profitable business. We see it more as an adjunct to consumer engagement in our titles."
Zelnick also addressed the company's digital revenues, which for the first time made up more than half of its revenues for the year. While the industry has shifted heavily toward digital in recent years, Zelnick doesn't see this as some sort of tipping point or a harbinger that physical goods are in for declines from here on out.
"This year was a little different because we had a very significant portion of this year's revenue through digital distribution," Zelnick said. "And that's a reflection of the power of titles like Grand Theft Auto Online as well as PC titles, 90 percent of which are digitally delivered. With frontline console releases, your numbers are more like 20 percent from digital distribution. So physical distribution remains the lion's share of our revenue."
While Zelnick acknowledged the growth of digital distribution is a good thing for Take-Two, he specified that it wasn't a strategy for the company because it's ultimately out of his hands.
"We want to be where the consumer is, and we're not really the ones who vote," Zelnick said.