Take-Two: Console games, maybe console pricing coming to tablets

Take-Two, the parent company of 2K Games and Rockstar Games, believes that tablets will soon be able to run console-quality games, and that it could experiment with console-level pricing at that point, said president Karl Slatoff during an investor call today.

“The tablets still aren’t powerful enough to run our console titles in their full experiences in the way [developers] want. But we think that’s just a moment in time,” said Slatoff, echoing comments made by Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick during the Cowen and Company Technology, Media and Telecom Conference this past May.

“I have every reason to believe that a tablet will be a great game platform, and we’ll be right there. I do think we’re a couple of years away,” he continued, adding that Take-Two sees the lack of a standardized controller for tablets as an obstacle to developers being able to put console games on the devices.

Asked if Take-Two could charge close to the price of a full console game for a console-quality experience on a mobile device, Slatoff said, “There really is no reason why — if you deliver a great experience on tablet — we should be price-limited.” However, he acknowledged that the company would listen to consumers on pricing, so if they “push back on the individual bite size price of a price because it’s on a tablet, [console-level pricing] wouldn’t make very much sense.”

If that happened, said Slatoff, “We could work within those parameters as well by altering and tailoring our product offering.”