Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says his company is staying away from MMOs outside of Asia because they're just not worth the effort. It partnered with Tencent in China for games like NBA 2K Online, but you won't see them cross the Pacific, GameSpot reports.
"We're actively investing in online MMOs; we're not doing it in the U.S. Why? Because MMOs don't work here," Zenick said at the Cowen Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference in New York today.
"We look at it and say 'How many MMOs have ever been successful in the US?' Two. World of Warcraft and EverQuest. That's kind of a bad slugging percentage," he said.
World of Warcraft's popularity seems to be flagging, but it has outperformed all western MMORPGs to make a grab at its substantial player base since 2004. Bethesda and NCSoft, among others, are still targeting the audience with games like The Elder Scrolls Online and Wildstar. Both are planned for release this year.
"We've stayed away from that market and instead we went to Asia where at any given time ten or twenty are successful in China generating lots of revenue."
One World of Warcraft player burned roughly 8.4 million gold by bidding on the MMO's old $475 mount right before a cheaper $90 version came out
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