The gaming industry is heading for a major platform shift, according to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick. In a candid interview with CNBC's Squawk Box, the executive behind Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K franchises said gaming is moving toward PCs over the next decade, even as traditional consoles maintain their foothold in living rooms worldwide.
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick just dropped a bombshell prediction that could reshape how we think about the future of gaming. Speaking to CNBC's Squawk Box on Monday, the executive behind some of gaming's biggest franchises said the industry is moving toward PCs in the coming decade, fundamentally shifting away from the closed console ecosystems that have dominated for generations.
"I think it's moving towards PC and business is moving towards open rather than closed," Zelnick explained during the interview. But he's not writing off consoles entirely - instead, he's reframing what a console actually means in 2025. "If you define console as the property, not the system, then the notion of a very rich game that you engage in for many hours that you play on a big screen - that's never going away."
The timing of these comments isn't coincidental. Take-Two sits at the center of gaming's biggest revenue streams, with Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and NBA 2K generating billions annually across multiple platforms. When Zelnick talks about platform trends, the entire industry listens - and his latest assessment suggests we're witnessing a fundamental shift in how people want to play games.
Right now, Zelnick says the market split between console and mobile gaming is roughly even, but mobile is growing significantly faster than traditional consoles. This creates an interesting dynamic where Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo continue doubling down on their closed, proprietary systems with major success, while competitors like Microsoft's Xbox are already hinting at more PC-integrated approaches for their next generation of hardware.
The shift becomes even more apparent when you look at what's happening on the hardware side. Valve created significant industry buzz last week with its announcement of the new Steam Machine - a console-PC hybrid that can run PC games on a television or function as a traditional gaming computer. It's exactly the kind of open platform convergence Zelnick is talking about, and it represents a direct challenge to the walled-garden approach that's defined console gaming for decades.
