[UPDATE] Take-Two says going forward, games must deliver innovation to succeed; "It's going to be very, very difficult for our competitors to do this."

[UPDATE] Following the publication of this story, a Take-Two Interactive representative reached out to GameSpot to clarify Zelnick's comments. The company said the spirit of Zelnick's talk was that future games must deliver innovation to suceed in the market and that his example of Grand Theft Auto V using multiple protagonists was an example of this.

The original story follows below

Take-Two Interactive has such high hopes for Grand Theft Auto V's three playable protagonists setup, that the company believes it will be an industry standard going forward.

"We think Grand Theft Auto V is going to redefine what an open-world game is and will be. We also think that you're going to have to have multiple protagonists in video games going forward," CEO Strauss Zelnick said today during the Cowen Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference in New York. "And we actually know how to do it because we're the first ones to do it. It's going to be very, very difficult for our competitors to do this. And they're going to have to do it in our opinion."

Zelnick said he believes being able to switch between characters with the press of a button in GTAV will allow for story to be told in an unprecedented way.

"This is going to be the first video game where you can shift seamlessly among three protagonists and if you think about it, one of the complicated factors in a video game has been the first person has to play all the emotional roles in the story; the good guy, the bad guy, the victim, the policeman, the cop, the hero," Zelnick said. "And, for the first time, you're going to be able to have three protagonists and that will actually drive the story forward."

Zelnick also used his platform to talk up the Grand Theft Auto franchise overall. He reiterated that the series has shipped 125 million units life-to-date and said the franchise is arguably one of the most important in all of worldwide entertainment.

"Our most important franchise remains Grand Theft Auto. We're proud of that; we're not trying to get away from that; we're trying to add to it, not diversify away from it," Zelnick said. "It's certainly the most important brand for Take-Two. It's arguably the most important brand in the industry. And one can even argue, and I'm certainly one to do that, that it's among the most important entertainment brands across any type of entertainment worldwide."

He also discussed consumer buying behavior, saying B-level games cannot succeed in today's market.

"What we do think is you've got to give consumers what they want; and what they care about is only the very highest quality intellectual property," Zelnick said. "A B-product simply isn't going to sell. And even an A-product has to be highly competitive to sell."

This sentiment matches up with that of Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat, who said last month that there is "no room for B-games."

GTAV launches September 17 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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[UPDATE] Take-Two says going forward, games must deliver innovation to succeed; "It's going to be very, very difficult for our competitors to do this."

[UPDATE] Following the publication of this story, a Take-Two Interactive representative reached out to GameSpot to clarify Zelnick's comments. The company said the spirit of Zelnick's talk was that future games must deliver innovation to suceed in the market and that his example of Grand Theft Auto V using multiple protagonists was an example of this.

The original story follows below

Take-Two Interactive has such high hopes for Grand Theft Auto V's three playable protagonists setup, that the company believes it will be an industry standard going forward.

"We think Grand Theft Auto V is going to redefine what an open-world game is and will be. We also think that you're going to have to have multiple protagonists in video games going forward," CEO Strauss Zelnick said today during the Cowen Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference in New York. "And we actually know how to do it because we're the first ones to do it. It's going to be very, very difficult for our competitors to do this. And they're going to have to do it in our opinion."

Zelnick said he believes being able to switch between characters with the press of a button in GTAV will allow for story to be told in an unprecedented way.

"This is going to be the first video game where you can shift seamlessly among three protagonists and if you think about it, one of the complicated factors in a video game has been the first person has to play all the emotional roles in the story; the good guy, the bad guy, the victim, the policeman, the cop, the hero," Zelnick said. "And, for the first time, you're going to be able to have three protagonists and that will actually drive the story forward."

Zelnick also used his platform to talk up the Grand Theft Auto franchise overall. He reiterated that the series has shipped 125 million units life-to-date and said the franchise is arguably one of the most important in all of worldwide entertainment.

"Our most important franchise remains Grand Theft Auto. We're proud of that; we're not trying to get away from that; we're trying to add to it, not diversify away from it," Zelnick said. "It's certainly the most important brand for Take-Two. It's arguably the most important brand in the industry. And one can even argue, and I'm certainly one to do that, that it's among the most important entertainment brands across any type of entertainment worldwide."

He also discussed consumer buying behavior, saying B-level games cannot succeed in today's market.

"What we do think is you've got to give consumers what they want; and what they care about is only the very highest quality intellectual property," Zelnick said. "A B-product simply isn't going to sell. And even an A-product has to be highly competitive to sell."

This sentiment matches up with that of Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat, who said last month that there is "no room for B-games."

GTAV launches September 17 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Publisher confirms it is retroactively eliminating online passes for all EA titles beginning with EA Sports games.

In response to consumer feedback, Electronic Arts has announced it is doing away with its controversial Online Pass scheme altogether. Previously, the company said only that future titles would not include Online Passes. Now, the move will be applied retroactively, beginning with EA Sports titles.

"As we discontinue Online Pass for our new EA titles, we are also in the process of eliminating it from all our existing EA titles as well," EA corporate communications representative John Reseburg told Game Informer. "We heard the feedback from players and decided to do away with Online Pass altogether."

"Players will see it first with some EA Sports titles, where a prompt to enter an Online Pass code will no longer appear in-game; with other titles we are simply making Online Passes available free of charge online," he continued. "These are rolling updates that are taking effect over the next several weeks. We hope players continue to enjoy our games and online services for a long time to come."

Online Passes have often been viewed as ways for developers and publishers to offset the financial shortfall of not seeing revenue when games are traded in and resold through retailers.

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BioWare's 2003 role-playing game now available on iPad for $10 thanks to port from Aspyr Media.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is now available to download for the iPad, Mac game developer and publisher Aspyr Media announced today. The game's mobile debut comes as the acclaimed role-playing game celebrates in tenth anniversary later this year.

"Being able to bring one of the most beloved Star Wars games to iPad for such a momentous event is an incredible honor," said Aspyr's vice president of publishing Elizabeth Howard in a statement. "We have a long history at Aspyr of bringing the best games to Apple platforms, and as bona fide fans of the original release, we've worked to ensure that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for iPad lives up to its prodigious reputation."

Aspyr Media is no stranger to bringing games to Apple platforms. The company has ported various high-profile titles to Mac, including Borderlands 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and BioShock Infinite, among others.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is available today through iTunes for $10. The game brings the "full experience" to the iPad, as well as user interface tweaks for the touch-screen.

The game is compatible only with the iPad 2 or newer models running iOS 6 or newer. The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic file size is 1.98 GB.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was originally developed by BioWare. It launched for Xbox and PC in November 2003. For more, check out GameSpot's review.

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