Speaking to VentureBeat, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick talked about his company’s anticipated revenue forecast for Bioshock 2, and the strength of brand awareness. Zelnick admits that he would have liked to have seen the original Bioshock sell more, even though the phenomenal title met universal critical appeal and managed to sell 3 million copies worldwide.
“We announced [Bioshock] sold around 3 million units. I’d like to see a title like that sell 5 million units. That would make the difference for us. If you have four or five titles that are significantly successful, that will meaningfully change our profitability.
BioShock got a lot of attention. It’s brand is huge. It won lots of awards. But it wasn’t as huge as a seller. I’m hopeful that BioShock 2 will benefit from the brand awareness, where people will play it even if they didn’t play the original.”
When Bioshock 2 releases later this year, will you buy the game due its brand appeal, or because the game looks amazing? Post your thoughts and replies in the comments section.