Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has signed a new contract which would, if the circumstances permit, make him a ton of money from microtransactions alone.
According to Kotaku, Zelnick will earn the money in terms of special bonuses. Aside from that, the contract has also solidified his position as Take-Two's CEO until 2029. The contract refers to these bonuses from microtransactions as "recurrent consumer spending" (RCS) items.
As per the official definition of the company, this includes digital add-on content, virtual currency, and other in-game items you can buy with real world money. What's going to happen here is that Zelnick will earn millions in stock bonuses should enough RCS items be sold. The reason is simple: the more money coming in, the more Take-Two's stock goes up.
Considering how Zelnick is the current CEO of Take-Two Interactive, it is safe to assume that he owns a considerable percentage of the company's shares.
The original report was shared by Axios, who also mentioned that the contract is basically Take-Two's admittance that they're not going to stop putting microtransactions into their games. This will keep happening despite the constant backlash that these games get for the tons of microtransactions in them - with the "NBA 2K" series being the most notorious of them all.
This would also be not the first time that Zelnick netted millions in stock performance incentives. Last year, he and company president Karl Slatoff both earned over $31 million from the same source.
But while this might sound a bit too much, it's not that rare in the world of business. CEOs have almost always had the chance to earn bonuses if company stock goes up as a result of their leadership. This isn't even considering Take-Two's NASDAQ stock prices potentially going up in the future.
Either way, keep buying VC in "NBA 2K" and Shark Cards in "GTA Online," and you'll make Strauss Zelnick richer and richer every year.
Microtransactions: Take-Two Interactive's Bread And Butter
Take away the considerable sales of games like "GTA 5," "NBA 2K," and others, and Take-Two is still pulling a ton of cash just from microtransactions alone. In fact, the amount of money they earn from these alone might just make your head spin.
From April to December last year, the company was able to earn an insane $1.65 billion from microtransactions alone, as reported to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In comparison, full game purchases only netted them $890 million.
"GTA Online" on its own was able to contribute around $600 million of revenue from microtransactions in 2019, reports PCGamer. The same thing goes for 2K Games, who as a Take-Two subsidiary earned $410.7 million in microtransactions alone, as reported by The Gamer.
The money looks to be great enough that despite a recent lawsuit involving microtransactions in "NBA 2K," Take-Two is still all-in on this universally hated business practice.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
