Zelnick throws down the gauntlet: 2K Sports outrates EA Sports

EA Sports or 2K Sports? Although EA Sports has the advantage in the number of their franchises, Take-Two head Strauss Zelnick believes that 2K Sports still “outrate[s] them significantly.” Quite a claim. More in the full article.

2K Sports isn’t really the most profitable division of Take-Two Interactive, especially in relation to Rockstar Games, another division of T2, and is the studio behind Grand Theft Auto IV.

Strauss Zelnick, chairman of T2, feels that things will turn around soon, expressing confidence at the quality of the games from 2K Sports, whose franchises include Major League Baseball and Top Spin.

Such is his confidence that Zelnick even strikes a jab at competing studio, EA Sports. Speaking at the 28th annual Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference, Zelnick remarks:

We pride ourselves on our quality. When we go head-to-head with ‘Brand X’ we out-rate them significantly. We outsell them when we go head-to-head. It’s sort of an unheralded achievement. This is a tough business.

Brand X, as can be easily construed, refers to EA Sports. Zelnick is disappointed that the sports business won’t become profitable this fiscal year, but he believes that once hardware sales gain more penetration in the market, things will turn around.

Of course, this could also hold true for EA Sports, as both studios release games on multiple platforms, so in terms of hardware, neither have a monopoly. As Zelnick implied, the battle isn’t in the number of platforms the games were release in, but in the quality of the games themselves.

Via GamesIndustry.biz