Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of game publisher Take-Two Interactive, says that in the realm of gaming, physical media is going the way of vinyl records.
Speaking with Christopher Dring of The Game Business, Zelnick says some form of physical media will always exist, but will only be for a limited audience:
“I predicted that digital distribution would be well over 90% of the business more than 10 years ago. I don’t always get it right, but this one I got right. Will there always be some physical business? Yes, in the same way that there’s still a vinyl business in recorded music. But it’s going to be a very small part of the business.”
The comments come ahead of Take-Two publishing “Grand Theft Auto VI” which arrives on November 19th. While that release does have a physical boxed edition, it ships with only a download code instead of a disc.
Zelnick’s comments fit in with Take-Two’s own numbers in its latest quarterly report which indicates physical retail and other brought in just 2% ( $38.4 million) to the business compared to the quarter’s $1.6 billion in net bookings.
Back in August, Zelnick famoulsy said discs “don’t really make sense for the consumer” for big games.
