In a recent interview with Protocol, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick detailed his thoughts on the hype around cloud gaming and subscription services like the Xbox Game Pass.
Zelnick compared the excitement around cloud gaming to the hype around VR, which hasn’t really taken off like a lot of studios probably hoped it would.
…there was all this hype for years about VR, and I wasn’t very compelled by that. Thankfully, as a result, we didn’t waste any money on it. Equally, there was an enormous amount of hype around movement to the cloud for interactive entertainment distribution.
While he believes broader distribution could never be a bad thing, much of the marketing around cloud gaming revolves around the ability to play games on whatever device you have, potentially appealing to people who might not have tried a game otherwise. However, as Zelnick points out, that implies that there are people out there that are interested in gaming, but not interested enough to buy a console or PC. I mean, they probably exist, but there can’t be that many of them.
Then, there’s the problem of technology. Worldwide internet connections are not equal and it will be a long time until everyone, in all markets, can stream games at a speed and quality that equals or surpasses the current experience.
I mean, he’s not wrong, but Zelnick has his doubts about subscription services like the Xbox Game Pass, too.
I would say I know pretty much for a fact that there will be certain important front-line titles that will not be available on a subscription basis. Those are very much the titles that people buy these platforms for.
Sure, except Microsoft has already said that Xbox Game Pass subscribers get day-one access to Microsoft exclusives. Red Dead Redemption 2 was even available on the Game Pass for a bit and Rockstar Games is a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive. So, he might be a little wrong on that one.
I guess this means you shouldn’t expect something like GTA 6 to be making its way to the Xbox Game Pass at launch, though.