Strauss Zelnick swapped Hollywood dreams for video games and built Take-Two ahead of GTA VI

From Fox to Crystal Dynamics

Strauss Zelnick grew up wanting to run a Hollywood studio, and he got close fast. By his early 30s, the Harvard business and law grad had become president of 20th Century Fox, but he concluded the film and television world wasn't the expansion engine he'd anticipated.

So he pivoted. As he put it on Bloomberg's The David Rubenstein Show, "I left Fox voluntarily, which no one ever does, to move to Silicon Valley, take a 95% pay cut and become the pre-revenue CEO of a little tiny video-game company called Crystal Dynamics in 1993."

Building Take-Two's playbook

The bet paid off. Following a March 2007 takeover of Take-Two by an investor consortium headed by Zelnick, the stock has risen 12-fold, buoyed by BioShock, Red Dead Redemption and Borderlands. Early on, he cut spending and centered the company on its strongest series, with NBA 2K and Civilization still running today.

Some titles were built inside the company while others came through deals, including the $12.7 billion acquisition of mobile developer Zynga. Zelnick also stressed governance and independence, saying, "We are a public company and we serve at the pleasure of our shareholders."

GTA VI, what makes it stick, and the industry backdrop

Rockstar Games, a Take-Two label, plans to launch Grand Theft Auto VI on Nov. 19. Zelnick highlighted the franchise's reach, saying, "We believe that the Grand Theft Auto franchise as a whole is probably the most valuable intellectual property in the entertainment business of any type because of its enormous reach to consumers worldwide." He added, "I'm very optimistic."

He pushed back on claims that violent games drive real-world violence, saying, "It's been tested by scientists over and over and over again, including people who really were anxious to prove causation between the two. There's neither correlation nor causation, no evidence whatsoever."

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The broader game market has matured. Big platform owners like Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation have been cutting jobs and closing studios. Acquisitions scooped up two of the industry's heavyweights - Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard - making Take-Two the biggest remaining pure-play game company. Zelnick suggested a similar deal is not on the table, noting the company can perform well independently.

Why it matters for your portfolio

Take-Two's strategy has been consistent since 2007: trim costs, double down on durable franchises, and add where it counts, including the Zynga buy. That approach sets up a major catalyst with Grand Theft Auto VI arriving on Nov. 19.

One last note on the home front: even with millions playing Take-Two titles, Zelnick's own kids did not bite. During his sons' high school years, he set up a gaming space loaded with consoles, a couch, and snacks. "Literally, they both went in the room for 45 minutes. They're like, 'Why do we need this?'" The bottom line: durable franchises, a giant release on the calendar, and a management team signaling it can keep going as an independent company.

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