Take-Two Interactive today released its quarterly earnings report for Q1 FY25, revealing that its bookings for the 12 months were flat in comparison with Q1 FY24. Following the report, the company held an earnings conference call where it answered questions, including a query about Take-Two’s view on user-generated content (UGC) across its franchises. According to CEO Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two has no plans to focus on UGC in the near future and does not view UGC as a major factor in the company’s future.
Zelnick said during the call (in response to a query from Oppenheimer & Co. about UGC and modding), “We’ve been very open and we’re certainly very excited about a lot of the things that our users are bringing to the table in their engagement with our titles and other people’s titles. We’re obviously excited about what we’re seeing in the GTA modding community and we think it’s pretty exciting. At the end of the day, entertainment companies have to deliver great entertainment to consumers. That’s the starting point. And I don’t believe that the industry is going to turn into a UGC-driven industry.”
User-generated content has change into a fixture in the gaming industry over the past few years as corporations have begun to create content on UGC-friendly platforms. Zelnick acknowledged this, saying, “But for some titles, like Roblox, they’re more of a platform than an individual entertainment title. And I think at this company, we pride ourselves on creating the best entertainment of every kind [sound muffled] and if consumers wish to extend that and refine it for their very own purposes, we’d generally prefer to enable that behavior.”
As Zelnick has admitted, modding is a staple of the Grand Theft Auto community, which has helped sustain interest in the title for over a decade. Grand Theft Auto V was most watched game on Twitch in 2023in line with SullyGnome. Instead, Zelnick noted that Take-Two will protect its mental property — in 2022, the company asked MyMetaverse to remove its NFTs from GTA servers, saying it couldn’t allow “the sale of virtual currencies, the generation of revenue via corporate sponsorships or in-game integration, or the use of cryptocurrencies or crypto assets.”
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Zelnick said, “We protect our intellectual property, we protect other people’s intellectual property, of course, but we feel like this can be a positive addition to the industry. But I don’t think it will define our company or the industry.” Take-Two’s upcoming major releases include Grand Theft Auto VI and Civilization VII, each set for release next 12 months.