Take-Two's Zelnick: Financial Crisis? What Financial Crisis?
Take-Two's Zelnick: Financial Crisis? What Financial Crisis?
December 4, 2008
It's a good thing that Strauss Zelnick is so good at running media companies.
Because he'd never make it as a financial analyst.
Reuters reports on the Take-Two head's somewhat obtuse view of the current global financial meltdown. Zelnick made his remarks at the Reuters Media Summit:
I don’t think we’re in a financial crisis.
The use of the word crisis — I’m loathe to be critical of the media since I’m every bit a part of the media — but I don’t think the word has been especially helpful. We’re obviously in a recession and these are very very trying times.
Zelnick then pushed the metaphorical envelope with this bit of imagery:
We’re still seeing the car crash, and the ambulances are still showing up at the scene. Maybe we’re in the emergency room, but we’re not even in the intensive care unit yet for a lot of these companies. But they will get there.
A separate Reuters report offers the Z-man's take on how the game biz is weathering the current financial crisis ...oops, "very, very trying times":
I think everyone was encouraged by Black Friday. It was better than expectations, but it's pretty hard these days -- being slightly down is the new up.
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Posted 11/08/09 at 09:02am
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:01am
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:53am
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:46am
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:31am
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:07am
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:06am
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Posted 11/08/09 at 12:24am
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
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Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
If it isn't Strauss.
Needs more 1u1z. Therefore, needs more Jack.
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"Game on, brothers and sisters." -Leet Gamer Jargon
That is a terrible metaphor the way he's trying to use it to make his point, given that being in ICU is when recovery is supposed to begin.
The car crash is what would be considered the crisis if he were using his metaphor more sensibly.
I thought Zelnick will be worried, unless that GTA4 DLC and GTA4 (for PC) sell well they are gonna have problems. As it stands, I heard problems are very bad on GTAIV PC. I say he is in a crisis, not much looking forward besides this DLC and relations with PC owners are damaged yet again from the buggy release.
I like his positive outlook.
oops didn't mean to reply to you, but to the thread.
lol
I think it is better you did it this way, because it just shows how wacky this guy is. Positive, but definitely a bit wacky, and not really seeing all the job losses happening, though T2 will prolly have to make cuts here soon.
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Yeah, GTAIV-PC has higher requirements than Crysis. Har har
His positive outlook is good. It's good to be optimistic.
of course someone will be in soon to claim Take Two is going down thanks to him, of course giving past predicitons, Take Two will be fine,.
Strauss Zelnick isn't wacky, he's a genius!
--- Official Protector of Videoland!
Well, maybe for him there is no Financial Crisis, but for us, we are pretty screwed... I wanted to buy a PS3 and some games, but with the dollar price falling and everything else rising as a rocket, I´ll have to wait even more.
Thanks, George Bush, you screwed my Christmas... :(
Somewhere in Miami:
JACK THOMPSON: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I´ll destroy you Zelnick, I swear to God your soul will be mine!!! AAAAAAAAGH!!!!!! Vidjagamez are EV1lZZZ!!!! ILL SUE YOU AAAAAALL IM A LOWL PERSON!!!!
Costumer: Sir, where is my damn BigMac? I´ve been asking it to you for 20 minutes!
JACK THOMPSON: Quiet, moron gamer!, I´m bitching on my column at HumanEvents about random conservative facts that normal people don´t care!
Kid Costumer: Can I haz my Happy Meal, sir?
JACK THOMPSON: OMG! A gamer! Please, don´t kill me!!! (soils his pants)
Random Lady: Oh God, that´s awful!!!
CSI Miami Intro: YEAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!
The cynical side of videogames (spanish only): http://thelostlevel.blogspot.com/ My DeviantArt Page (aka DeviantCensorship): http://www.darkknightstrikes.deviantart.com/
LMAO! I wonder how the rest of the show would turn out.
--- Official Protector of Videoland!
Jack and Horatio fight on a rooftop, and Jack shoots himself on his foot. Then Jack jumps from the building in waiting to be saved magically by Jesus. But Jack survives, because he fell on a truck loaded with manure. :(
Then Jack tries to sue Jesus and turns to the islam and blames videogames and Obama. CSI Miami cast do a colective facepalm at the end of the episode :(
The cynical side of videogames (spanish only): http://thelostlevel.blogspot.com/ My DeviantArt Page (aka DeviantCensorship): http://www.darkknightstrikes.deviantart.com/
LOL, seriously though, i don't wish harm on JT, but JT always seem to bring pain to himself.... i feel bad (ALMOST) for JT for losing his licesnce to ramble about violent video games
Jesus Jack Jones Thompson.... is dead... (funeral udruge, followed by Celebrate :D )
He's right, crisis is a buzz word.
Not only are we not in a resseseccion (2 consecutive quarters of negetive GDP growth) until the end of this quarter, I have never heard the Carter years (stasticly much worse then the present) called a crisis.
"The use of the word crisis — I’m loathe to be critical of the media since I’m every bit a part of the media — but I don’t think the word has been especially helpful. We’re obviously in a recession and these are very very trying times."
I happen to agree with this sentiment. I don't think the use of the word "crisis" (or "meltdown" or "depression" or any of the other overblown terms) has been especially helpful. It creates fear in people and causes them to cut back more than they normally would or more than is necessary, which then causes a domino effect within the economy. If the media made it a point to simply present the facts without making it sound like the score in the latest football game we'd probably all be better off.
This is only 'not a crisis' if we compare it to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 (and it could still be that major - the Wall Street Crash took three years to hit bottom). Compared to everything else, this is a huge crisis.
He should've added some hookers and an uzi to that car-crash metaphor to turn it into a GTA ad.
"It's like, the economy is Lance Vance, and it's bleeding out in the garbage dump. Now, Lance hasn't seen Tommy Vercetti yet, but he will, and then the two of them will go murder Diaz and take over Vice City for a while. What I'm saying is, the economy is going to betray us to Sonny and we're going to have to kill it to preserve our assets. Where's my chaingun?"
---
The Mammon Industry
He's absolutely correct. A good portion of this recession can be laid at the feet of the scare mongering media.
Recession? Absolutely. Depression? Getting there. Crisis? Having nukes pointed at us from a country close enough to sail to on a make-shift raft is a crisis. Having your 401-k lose a good chunk of money you never really had is NOT a fucking crisis. It's plain ignorance. Congress is just fucking a football if they think spending money they don't have to save businesses that are going to fail anyway is a solution.
http://consumerist.com/5101440/2008-bailout-costs-as-much-as-several-large-and--famous-government-projects-combined
The scope of their ridiculous 'solution.'
You want a root cause of this financial turmoil? Stop ignorantly blaming GW Bush and write some letters to your Congress members. They are the cause.
~~All Knowledge is Worth Having~~
Tough to argue with, and I actually agree with everything you said. Blaming GW for it all is kind of like firing the coach when the team sucks; the fans feel better temporarily but it doesn't really help your team that much. I'm very anti-bailout myself for the reasons you mentioned, plus on the moral side, it just seems to reward the undeserving.
"There is no sin except stupidity." - Oscar Wilde
Their not going to have a great year next year, simply because they don't have a lot out. GTA (DLC) and GTA China Town Wars is basically it for them, and their NBA games are going to do okay as they have for the past few years but thats it, if anyone wants to remind me of other games 2K has next year.
Google said the same thing, but they went down from $700 per share to just over $200 a share within one year.