During the MIT Business in Gaming conference, the CEO from Take Two, Strauss Zelnick, doesn't believe THQ will last beyond this year with his projection being around 6 months.
He compared THQ's current financial strategy to the one current used by Take Two as a way to explain why THQ was "floundering" while Take Two was more successful this year.
His main argument was in regards to THQ's poor handling with licensed properties stating they had too much money and resources tied into these properties.
If the games improved, the fees would rise during the next time contracts had to be renewed. If those same games bombed in sales, THQ wouldn't be able to recover development costs for those games. Both would lead to less revenue margins in the long run.
Since Take Two barely has any licensed properties, they have less money being spent on non-gaming stuff which in return frees up the money for development of other games.
Quote:
"THQ's strategy was licensed properties, first and foremost. License stuff from other people, whether it's UFC or WWE or a motion picture property, and make a game around that," Zelnick said, noting Take-Two hasn't had the best year either, but it has had a good five-year run. "And our approach, since we took over the company, is 100 percent owned intellectual property."
Zelnick stated licensed properties -- something he has avoided in his career -- leaves publishers at the mercy of license holder. Even if a publisher does a great job on a property, it will have to renegotiate the license in a few years and the margins will decrease because it is being charged more money for a brand it built up in the space. Zelnick noted that THQ did partially change its strategy a few years back regarding owned intellectual strategy, but it's hard to do that overnight.
"Strategy didn't work and the execution was bad. To put it another way: the food was no good and the portions were small." Zelnick closed his comparison of the two companies by saying, "THQ won't be around in six months."
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http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/05/th...o-ceo-zelnick/
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Daily Recap:
1) The new CEO of Sony proclaims changes and a new strategy for Sony will be occurring very soon after next year's annual fiscal report is made public. The report is predicted to show a $2.7 billion loss for the year and the fourth mega-loss year in a row.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/05/s...-new-strategy/
2) One of the original co-creators for the Sonic franchise, Hirokazu Yasuhara, was recently hired as an employee by Nintendo for one of its American-based studios which deals primarily with handheld and downloadable games.
http://kotaku.com/5899233/sonics-co+...joins-nintendo
3) Ubisoft says fan suggestions for an Assassin's Creed game in Japan, Egypt, or during World War II are "very boring" but did hint India could be a future setting for the series.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...sassins-creed/