Strauss Zelnick, the chairman of
Take Two, shared with
GamesIndustry.Biz his doubts on the initial success of
OnLive. In a nutshell Mr. Zelnick sees
OnLive as a benefit but cites first party console makers as the major players in the digital download future, not
OnLive.
"I suspect what you'll see is the continuing growth of downloadable content and there will reach a point where even our console first-parties will have good reason to be in the downloading business as opposed to the packaged goods business."
This isn't the first time Mr. Zelnick has shared mixed feelings about
OnLive; in an interview with
GamesBeat he shared his doubts about a system of servers being able to handle all the features that
OnLive promises.
"There’s no doubt consumers would find it compelling to download something instead of going to the store. But the server capacity is a big task for millions of people to play it at the same time."
Why is everyone making a big deal about what the chairman of
Take Two thinks about
OnLive?
Take Two has already committed to having their titles
BioShock and
Major League Baseball 2K9 on the service. Anything Mr. Zelnick says about
OnLive will color how other publishers and developers approach
OnLive in the future. Currently he's walking that fine line between loyalties with old and new business partners. On one hand I believe he is genuinely excited about the possibilities of
OnLive but is hedging his bets, knowing that first party console makers will come out with new business models to rival that of
OnLive. I have shared
my ideas on the inevitable move to all digital distribution but I think all the
Take Two chairman is hoping for is a reduced cost in fabricating and shipping physical copies of games.
