Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick seems pretty happy with this year’s Mafia: The Old Country. In a new interview, he said the relatively short and linear semi-open-world action game proves that a lot of players will buy games that are focused, not super bloated, and offer a good story. And boy howdy, as someone who loves a nice weekend single-player game, I’m very happy to hear that.
In a recent interview with The Game Business newsletter, Zelnick talked about some of the successes Take-Two has had over the past few months. It turns out Borderlands 4 isn’t selling as well as expected, which the CEO blames on PC issues and says he expects it to do well in the long term. On the flipside, Mafia: The Old Country, a different game published earlier this year by 2K (a wholly owned subsidiary of Take-Two), actually beat internal sales expectations. According to Zelnick, it proves that people want well-made, narrative-driven single-player games.
“What we suspected was confirmed,” Zelnick told the outlet. “Which is just…if you give consumers a great narrative experience that’s a lot of fun, somewhat contained, and at a fair price, then you can have the perfect result.”
Remember when everything wasn’t a live-service thing?
Released in August and developed by Hangar 13, The Old Country is smaller than past Mafia titles, only takes about 11 hours to complete, has no online components, and launched at a reduced price of $50. It’s also the kind of game we don’t really get anymore from AAA publishers like 2K: a big-budget, solo-only, linear action game that lacks a lot of replay value or in-game purchases. Back in the PS2 and even Xbox 360 eras of gaming, this was pretty standard stuff. Not so much anymore.
However, as Zelnick points out, there is definitely a demand for these types of games. I think a lot of people don’t have the time to dedicate to the latest big online hit, nor can they invest 200 hours into some giant open-world RPG. But a 10- to 12-hour action-adventure game with some great cutscenes, good writing, and no bullshit? Yeah, that’s appealing to a lot of people, myself included.
Hopefully, Mafia: The Old Country‘s success can be used as a blueprint for Take-Two, and the publisher can greenlight similarly sized projects at its various studios. And we can play those games while we wait for Take-Two’s juggernaut, Grand Theft Auto 6, to finally release one day. Eventually.
