Take-Two to Bring More AAA Games from Their Portfolio to Mobile Devices, Fewer Console Releases

Take-Two Interactive recently held their quarterly earnings call with their investors and in the process they've shared a few interesting details regarding their plans for mobile and console releases over the next year, with the latter seeing fewer than the previous period.

[MadLad]

I really don't like the state the games industry is in at the moment . . .

[chrish1990]

More games is a good thing, but when mega publishers expect to release (and potentially make more profit from,) mobile games, it does get me a little worried.

[UltraNova]

Well I'd say if more top tier game companies follow suit (which they are) we're done for.

Thank GOD Sony has a ton of 1st party studios and MS is showing signs that they're taking 1st party development more seriously as of late, so no need to worry, for now.

[freshslicepizza]

big titles cost a lot of money to make, they see more profit ratio return from mobile games. it's not hard to see why they choose mobile.

the thing is even though the ps4 is selling extremely well has the console market extracted or expanded over the past decade? are people buying more games or less on average? is the used market hurting them more than it did before now that e-bay and cragslist is so prominent? there are a lot of factors to consider but at the end of the day companies look at revenue and expenses.

[sinjonezp]

I cannot agree more. The current state of gaming is one of profitability, sustainability, and sad to say...inability . I think as we seen, devs have hit a "wall" with creative content and big releases are considered gambles. In order to sustain , companies look to mobile releases because of the amount of smart devices in the wild. We looking at hundreds of millions of devices and that's a large market that companies want to tap into. With the current gen systems we have few and far in between quality releases with ridiculous amounts of DLC to profit from gamers. Additionally the "cash in" on remasters which cost little to sell old games at 1080p. If I were in charge of a development company I would use the resources gained in the mobile market to fund big projects. A company like take two can easily do this and fuel more console growth. With the sales figures of GTA V , the console market shows it is not dead and consumers are willing spend on console games. Granted the market has changed dramatically , consoles gaming is what got us to this point, and with the sales of almost 40 million ps4s and xb1s , the console market is alive and well and should be tapped more often then not. With the ease of development with these consoles, devs should be able to make quality games without breaking the bank. I believe companies can do more but they are and I hate to say it afraid ....fellow n4g'rs what are yall thoughts ?

[TheSaint]

We just need to stop people spending insane amounts to unlock one green gem or some such BS.

Please people, just stop buying all this pointless stuff and we/you will get whole games for a single price.

[Trekster_Gamer]

While I don't spend my money in this manner I would say who the hell are you to tell people how to spend their money? Good, bad or stupid it is up to the individual.

There are enough gamers to cater to just about every avenue of gaming.

[TheSaint]

@Trekster_Gamer: Sure, because gaming ISN'T being ruined by micro-transactions, SMH.

As usual the minority spoil it for the majority.

I know you can't respond so I'll just say, it's not me that needs an attitude adjustment.

[DeadlyFire]

Just wait for Cloud developed games in the future. Only one version of the game streamable to every platform. Until bandwidth makes that flawless we will continue to see a mobile\console\Pc split. Mobile games are just time killers not worth playing. People will tire of them at some piont.Its the flash sales that are so attractive. People dont keep up with every mobile game for very long.

[ZaWarudo]

omfg

[Ocsta]

When I said the mobile scourge would be the death of gaming no one believed me. Behold.

[Kalebninja]

its definitely happening, I mean we just lost konami and sega FUCKING SEGA . its crazy really.

[clevernickname]

Agreed.

Greed being the active word here.

[ShaunCameron]

Yeah. How dare those companies cater to a market that care about video games but don't really care for consoles?

[clevernickname]

ShaunCameron, you misunderstand. Companies aren't investing in mobile AND console gaming, they are developing mobile gaming at the expense of console gaming.

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

Lol mobile phones are probably the worst thing ever to happen to the gaming industry. I remember the days when flash games where free and didn't involve paying to get the next level unlocked. Actually I just insulted flash games by even comparing them. If only kids and casuals didn't have to be involved to fund the game industry and the developers actually realized having to pay for little bits of a game to actually play it is complete bullshit.

I don't want to believe my favorite hobby of playing games on a video game system is going to die... but when the amount of good big budget games being made are becoming rare it's not looking good. Plus 90% of the triple a games I bought on PS4 were buggy, bad framerate, bad story, short story, not worth $60, and ripped apart into dlc plans that you would realize after buying where even bigger disappointments than the already disappointing game. I mean LittleBigPlanet 3 was horrible at launch and still is bad. Sleeping Dogs still runs bad. Saints Row IV crashes almost every time I play it but get this unlike every other release that was buggy this gme to this day has not received a single patch. It still has a high crash rate yet no updates? I'm glad Sony allows us to type a message when sending in error reports because I tell them how much of a disappointment they are for allowing trash to represent their amazing brand. In my total playthrough of that game I probably had 25 random crashes. LittleBigPlanet 3 I had around 10 crashes, The Last of Us 5 crashes, and Battlefield 4 10 crashes. No other game I've played has crashed more than twice and BF4 I haven't had a crash in a long time but the framerate still goes to shit sometimes but Hardline is more steady.

[Tsubasa-Oozora]

I think I know why.

I was reading this today.. "mobile gaming device"
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-...

"4K playback and AAA gaming with a competitive price tag"
"By plugging into the GRID, you will eventually be able to stream around 50+ AAA titles with roughly 3 times the power of the Xbox One"

They are talking about selling this thing for $299
GAME OVER

[ArnoDorian]

idk wat tht is but im buying tht

[Bundi]

I find it hilarious that so many people here are still in denial over the growing dominance of mobile gaming. I mean analysts had been saying for years that smartphones would affect the handheld market and you fools buried your heads in the sand. Look how that worked out for the Vita.

And now mobile is coming for console gaming and again you people want to plug your ears and chant "lalala I can't hear you" in unison.
I don't like mobile gaming but I'm also not an ignoramus, the writing is on the wall.

[Furesis]

yeah well there's not much we can do about it we just have to accept it

[DragonKnight]

Ain't gonna happen. Konami and Take Two will lose a butt load of money going mobile. Mobile is not a threat to console gaming in so much as it is not taking sales away. If it is a threat to console gaming, it's in the fact that it will cause these shortsighted publishers to go bankrupt chasing the microtransaction dollars and lowered production costs but being drowned by a sea of content added daily by pretty much anyone else.

[Sashamaz]

Konami and Take Two rarely release games so I see why they are going mobile, they are not like EA and Activision who push out years games and produce good sales everytime.

[joeorc]

Lol, your going to get lots of disagrees, but the fact is there is no when or if the console market will be disrupted, Like the PDA before it convergence, and market disruption has already happened!

does that mean consoles go the way of the dodo? Most likely No. But the reality is Game consoles purpose for Gaming being what its designed for, has in effect been burdened by the very thing that effected the PDA devices place in the market.

Game consoles Market has "indirect" comp. From Not only smartphones, Smart TV box's, Streaming TV sticks. Now TV's themselves! Than the embedded systems all have one thing in common they are using the core same chipsets base Arm Holdings Chipset is in 97% of all those devices. Top it off One port = to all the devices , code once.

The development costs, teams needed not only in size, but also experience may be just as large as console developer team size, but its cost to develop on is lower. Return On investment is higher and most of the main blunt truth is , majority is network app store distribution = less costs upfront but better returns for generation of profit.

Mobile as a general compute device has more in common in like the PC than just an embedded main focus design as "just a game console" its advantage is quick on hand viability, add a standard wired or Bluetooth Game pad and pretty much mobile, smart TV's , Tablets , Roku Box, streaming sticks are ready to go for gaming. Yes the power is no where near the Xbox one, PS4 or Nintendo WiiU, but that's not the issue, the systems are able to run games near or close to the xbox360, Ps3 and Wii, that to mass consumers.

It Good Enough, with the sheer Numbers and speed of adoption, Smartphones with GPU's onboard the System on a chip is strong enough to run GTA: San Andreas..this even on a freaking Pay as you go phone, with a Bluetooth game pad..pretty much is what many publishers see as a slam dunk on Profit generation.

The smartphone is pretty much a general compute device on hand that due to being pretty much so cheap now and many consumers already have one, its become its own General Use platform pretty much like a Mini PC

remember Pocket PC'?

well here we are..LOL

[DragonKnight]

*sigh* And then people wonder why Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Knight easily make their kickstarters.

It's because of dumbass greedy publishers like Take Two who can't see that putting their games in a market where 500+ games a day are added is the dumbest possible move you can make, but all they can see are those microtransaction dollars and lowered total production costs.

I really want these publishers to seriously ask themselves a question. I mean really consider this.

Do you think the typical mobile crowd knows/gives a damn who you are? You think that being Take Two is going to bring you success in a market filled with the most fickle casual gamers in existence? They're looking for Angry Birds, Candy Crush, and Flappy Bird. They aren't looking for Red Dead Redemption mobile, or Grand Theft Auto mobile where you have to pay microtransactions if you want to hijack a car.

You and Konami have to realize that your names only matter to the core gamers who've supported you since day one. The casuals of the mobile market will pass over your games on their way to the next brain dead "play it at the doctor's office" candy crush clone in a hot second. You know, this is the problem with suits. They go to school to learn about projections, spreadsheets, profit margins. They never pay attention to the actual market they sell their products to.

[donwel]

What I want to know is where all these publishers were with their AAA games when the Wii was the fad of the moment.

[DragonKnight]

They were making oxymoronic excuses. See, these are the people that will blast the Wii and Wii U as being too underpowered for their visions, and then at the same time complain that their visions (or rather entitled gamers) are too expensive to keep up with. So when the Wii was selling 100 million units and you didn't need to make such graphically intensive games because that's not why people were buying it, why didn't you jump at that chance to show gamers that 4K, 120FPS with all the bells and whistles gaming is not actually necessary for a good gaming experience?

It's the suits man. They are too detached from reality because the ties cut off blood circulation to the brain.

[gangsta_red]

It can't be that dumb since almost every publisher or dev is making that plunge into mobile.

You have to understand that production for mobile is way, WAY less than production for consoles. A dev can afford to make a game for mobile and not have it be a success...especially when you consider free ad revenue that generates them money anyways. There's room for error on mobile, there is less to no room for error on consoles.

Not to mention mobile has an even higher install base than consoles. If you think mobile is crowded imagine how crowded consoles are. Lots of carbon copy games and rehashed sequels, there's a reason for this.

The risk on consoles is way too high for a lot of devs. Production for triple A games are in the Hollywood movie millions and the risk return is greater.

"Do you think the typical mobile crowd knows/gives a damn who you are?"

Who cares! As long as they buy their game. You don't think a brand name on mobile won't carry any weight? It sure will, you don't think a GTA, Red Dead or Bully mobile won't sell? Especially if they make it specifically for mobile devices?

Core gamers are not paying a lot of these dev's rent and they are not making them the extra cash they need to support their business. Casual gamers are more than likely to try out their games than a hardcore picky gamer who will gripe and moan when they see their favorite devs game on a mobile device.

[DragonKnight]

"It can't be that dumb since almost every publisher or dev is making that plunge into mobile."

Yeah it can. They're only looking at numbers, specifically cost and microtransaction return. They see games like Candy Crush doing well and think "I want a piece of that pie" but ignore the environment they're jumping into. They will not succeed. I can pretty much guarantee that.

"You have to understand that production for mobile is way, WAY less than production for consoles. A dev can afford to make a game for mobile and not have it be a success...especially when you consider free ad revenue that generates them money anyways. There's room for error on mobile, there is less to no room for error on consoles."

Nope. No business is going to be ok with not making money. No matter how little the cost.

"Not to mention mobile has an even higher install base than consoles. If you think mobile is crowded imagine how crowded consoles are. Lots of carbon copy games and rehashed sequels, there's a reason for this."

Consoles don't have 500+ games a day added to the market. The competition in the mobile market is far larger than in the console market.

"Who cares! As long as they buy their game. You don't think a brand name on mobile won't carry any weight? It sure will, you don't think a GTA, Red Dead or Bully mobile won't sell? Especially if they make it specifically for mobile devices?"

That's the thing, they're not going to buy their game. These pubs are relying on their name to succeed and the mobile market is not going to give a damn about their name. The core market is not migrating to mobile and the core market is the market that WOULD buy games based on reputation. So no, I don't think a mobile GTA or Red Dead will sell. Do you think 40 year old soccer moms know who Rockstar is and will buy their games?

"Core gamers are not paying a lot of these dev's rent and they are not making them the extra cash they need to support their business. Casual gamers are more than likely to try out their games than a hardcore picky gamer who will gripe and moan when they see their favorite devs game on a mobile device."

Core gamers have been supporting the industry for 40+ years. Casual gamers are not going to buy anything but the latest fad. We've seen this happen countless times repeatedly.

[gangsta_red]

"They see games like Candy Crush doing well and think "I want a piece of that pie" but ignore the environment they're jumping into. They will not succeed. I can pretty much guarantee that."

Is it any different form a dev who sees CoD on consoles and says "I want a piece of that."? But when that dev fails to capture that crowd or become a hit, they tend to close up shop, that is unlikely in the mobile world.

I'm also pretty confident these companies have high priced egg heads (marketing managers) on their staff looking at these environments and advising exactly what to do when getting into the mobile market. These guys are no slouches when it comes to development.

"Consoles don't have 500+ games a day added to the market."

Which is all the more reason for bigger companies that have a name and money to stand out from the 500+ games on mobile. It's the same on consoles, I was looking for Axiom Verge the other day and I passed by a what it seemed like a ton of other games to get to that game I wanted. Consoles are no different.

"Do you think 40 year old soccer moms know who Rockstar is and will buy their games?"

No, but their 10 to 13 year old son will. You really think that only soccer moms play mobile games? I don't know if you have any children, nieces or nephews but I suggest you even get to the mall or stop by a school without looking suspect and you will see every kid from 4th grade to college has a mobile device.

"Core gamers have been supporting the industry for 40+ years."

Times are changing and the core games that were needed to support older games is just not cutting it anymore with today's development of triple A titles. FF13 costs way more to make than FF3 on the NES. This is exactly why you are seeing these devs branching out and trying to jump into other forms of revenue, the core just can't support them anymore.

It's part of the reason we are seeing Sony, MS and Nintendo venturing out in other areas for their consoles and them emphasizing other features than just gaming alone.

[DragonKnight]

"Is it any different.."

Yes it is. In the console world, simply making a clone will always end up in failure. If you do nothing to distinguish it from being a mere imitation to its own thing, you can't expect to succeed. In the mobile market clones have been successful but not for very long. And while there is less risk of "closing up shop" in the mobile market, there's also significantly less possibility to profit. Like I said, no company enjoys constantly losing money. At least in the console market, your game can be made to succeed much easier than in mobile, where you have to compete against 500+ other games and who knows how many clones.

"I'm also pretty.."

Yeah, the same egg heads that said gamers didn't want Mega Man and then Mighty No. 9 got funded. The same egg heads that were responsible for the Xbox One's DRM which received probably the biggest backlash in gaming history and was forced to be removed else see MS' chances at any kind of success this gen plummet into an abyss of nothingness. Just because you are the head of your class in statistical analysis doesn't mean you know jack about the market.

"Which is.."

Dude, it's VERY different. First of all, you're talking about indie titles, which pretty much proves my point. You were inundated with other games you had no interest in. You, being a core gamer, knew exactly what you were looking for. In the mobile market, you don't exist. The name of those companies is completely irrelevant in the mobile market. Do you think the creator of Angry Birds was a big company with a name? Hell no. Flappy bird was made by one guy who didn't have the resources of Take Two or Konami. Only core gamers care about reputation. Casual gamers care about fads. Konami or Take Two have to be able to create a fad. If they can't, they will always fail. We have seen this also happen.

"No, but.."

My 10 year old nephew is interested in Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros, Kirby, Pokemon, and The Legend of Zelda. He watches videos on his phone, plays games on his DS. Plenty of studies have proven that the majority of people who game on mobile devices are middle aged women, and 10 to 13 year olds can't buy games.

"Times are changing..."

No they're not. FFVII cost 45 million to develop in '97. Today that cost would be 68 million. Development costs have not gone up as high as studios want you to believe. The mere presence of the PC market proves this point better than anything. What costs the most money are bloated marketing budgets and manufacturing costs. We don't need collector's editions, we don't need store specific bonuses. Eliminate the middle man, and suddenly those costs plummet. The issue is greed. We can easily see this is the cause.

"It's part..."

Nope. MS, Sony, and Nintendo are doing this because it's the natural progression of gaming. They know that they have to progress forward if they want to remain relevant, else the PC market will simply swallow the console audience whole due to sheer versatility. They are also competing, trying to offer things the others won't, and trying to corner the market on features. It has little to do with needing to do so because development is expensive and everything to do with securing future profit methods.

[MrChow666]

This is getting ugly...

[RiPPn]

Can't wait for the mobile bubble to pop and see all these companies come running back to where their bread is buttered.

[Zay]

Please God!!! No!!!

[nucky64]

did anyone actually read the article? NOWHERE in the article does it say take-two will release fewer console games. it DOES say to expect fewer games from take-two in the next 12 months and that those games released will be well supported.

[ironfist92]

When I hear publishers turning their focus to making more Mobile games and less Console games, its obvious they care more about making a quick buck than creating art with artistic integrity, meanings, narratives and characters.

Why paint art when crayons are so much cheaper, I suppose.

[Youngindy21]

I'd be okay with this if by mobile games they meant PS Vita and 3DS games. But gamers don't want stupid Android and IOS/IPhone games. We are tired of playing games on a stupid touch screen and we are tired of the F2P model as well.

[donwel]

Speak for yourself, I love getting bum raped into buying more in game gold or speeding up building construction. It's what gets me up in the morning.

That was sarcasm, obviously.
When the casual plebs move onto the next big thing, these companies will come slithering back, the only question is will we take them back?
Personally I'm not known for forgiveness and I'm not huge a fan of being dicked over either.

[PSVitaPS4owner]

I have a cell phone but I refuse to get games for it. Unfortunetly everyone else seems to play games on it. I want Take Two to bring their games to Vita or 3DS, not to mobile.

[BlackWolf12]

A lot of people in the industry say that "Mobile gaming is the future", but the funny thing is, the only thing that could possibly create that future, is all the AAA devs going mobile.

Then we wouldn't have a choice but to go mobile.

Other than that, there is no evidence that console gaming is in decline, or that mobile gaming is taking anything away from the console cake.

[joeorc]

Its very simple; Example:..

http://www.apple.com/itunes...

$6.99 a pop GTA: San Andreas is #35 on the chart, Now add in Android.

GTA: Vice city is # 60
GTA: III #98

all three in the top 100, they print freaking Money peep's

Again:

are they on iOS..Yes
are they on Android OS..yes
are they on the Nintendo 3DS..NO
are they on the PSVita..No

that is just the blunt simple truth!