Take Two CEO: ‘I’m sure streaming will happen’

Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has opened up with thoughts about the future of gaming, specifically in relation to how much impact streaming services can and will have.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, as reported by GI.biz, Zelnick was asked about his thoughts on streaming services for games. “I think streaming will happen,” he said. “There are numerous companies that are looking at it. The companies that are best positioned to pursue streaming are technology companies that have hyperscale data centers all around the world.

“So you know what that means: there aren’t very many of those because you do have to address latency, and you do have to be pretty close to where the consumer is in order to address latency. Do I think that will happen? I’m sure it will happen. I think that will happen in one to three years. Does it increase the total addressable market? Naturally, it does, because you don’t need to buy a box in order to play our games. You’ll probably need to buy a controller, and those will be available.”

This stance, while more cautious, echoes sentiments from EA, which recently said it believes streaming ‘will happen’ at some point in the future. Obviously it’s already happening, but not in the widespread, technically sound way Zelnick and EA is getting at.

That said, Zelnick isn’t convinced streaming hitting the mainstream would have as huge an impact as some think: “I can’t sit here and argue it will be a sea change in the business,” he said, “I know one of our competitors has argued that, but my view is we should really talk about what we can control, which is making really great content. And probably leave stuff that we can’t control–massive hyperscale distribution systems–to other people, except to make the point that if they’re there, we’ll be there. It’s the same way that if someone wanted to open a video game store next to GameStop, we’d sell to them tomorrow.”

Zelnick’s comments likely came after a morning of tough workouts; you too can get the CEO body to die for by picking up the CEO’s fitness book. Yes, this is a real thing – but if you look at the man, you can see that: he is in fine shape for a 61-year-old.