Take-Two Reckons THQ Will Go Bust in Six Months

Games house THQ is currently struggling, really struggling, to the point that its shares have dropped to below $1 in January, which threatens to delist them from the stock market. This bad fortune has provided a golden opportunity for a competitor in the form of Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick to play dirty and stick the boot in. He compared the strategy of his company and that of THQ’s, pointing out that licensing IP is bad, because all the profits get sucked up by the licences, “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 a good five-year run. “And our approach, since we took over the company, is 100 percent owned intellectual property.”

He also doesn’t think much of THQ’s output quality, “The most important difference is quality. Take-Two has the highest quality ratings among third-party publishers, according to Metacritic and most people in the industry. Quality really, really, really matters. THQ has had some good games, but their quality levels aren’t even remotely … the quality hasn’t measured up. 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.”

However, THQ understandably isn’t taking this lying down and dismissed Zelnick’s prediction, “Obviously, Mr. Zelnick’s perception of THQ is outdated and inaccurate. His comments are irresponsible and false. Perhaps he would be better off commenting on his own business.”