On CNBC's Squawk Box on August 10, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said GTA 6 pre-orders are running ahead for the $99.99 Ultimate Edition rather than the $79.99 Standard. His read on why: 'the most avid consumers are the ones who are pre-ordering now.' Early buyers tend to be the most committed players, and the most committed players are the ones most likely to pay the extra twenty dollars for everything on offer. Push Square covered the remarks on August 11.
That fills in a detail the August 7 earnings call left open. At the call Zelnick said both versions were performing exceptionally without saying which was ahead. The Squawk Box appearance is where he made the gap explicit. Pressed on whether the price represents fair value, he said Take-Two's job is to deliver, always, way more value to the consumer than what it charges, and pointed to how long GTA V held its price as the case for Rockstar titles. He also allowed that Rockstar could have gone higher, saying most people felt the company had a great deal of pricing power if it wanted to exert it.
The other thing worth knowing if you are waiting to buy: do not count on a price cut. Zelnick said Take-Two preserved its pricing on GTA V 'for a very long time, much longer than a standard release of an entertainment property,' which is the clearest signal yet that no official discount is coming soon after November 19. He left one door open, noting that 'there are certain situations where certain retailers will price down to drive demand for other things they sell, so I can't tell you what will happen.' Any early discount is likely to come out of a retailer's margin rather than Rockstar's price. Beebom carried those quotes.
The same appearance included a question about Take-Two as a potential acquisition target for Netflix, given the August 27 Extended Look premiere deal. Zelnick was direct: 'I think if anyone deserves to be an independent company, we do.' He added that Take-Two is the largest publicly traded pure-play games company in the world and has built that position without being acquired. VGC covered those remarks. The Extended Look premiere is still on for August 27, 3 PM ET on Netflix, with Rockstar's YouTube channel carrying it at 9 PM ET.