Rockstar’s parent company CEO gets big bonus for in-game sales

Microtransactions in games like Grand Theft Auto Online have become big business for video game publishers. And it probably won’t change anytime soon. New details revealed in the recent contract renewal with Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick explain that the CEO will receive a big bonus if more players spend more money to purchase in-game items, coins, and skins.

As informs Axiosa new contract extension with Zelnik means the 64-year-old CEO will continue to run Take-Two until 2029. It also shows how much the manager would benefit if games like GTA Online, NBA 2K, and Borderlands force players to spend extra money on in-game items, referred to in the contract as “recurring consumer spending” or RCS items. These items are defined by the Take-Two contract as digital additional content, in-game items and virtual currency.

Zelnick could earn millions in stock bonuses if the company and its studios sell enough RCS merchandise to meet or exceed certain thresholds specified in the contract. According to the financial statements, in 2021 Take-Two made over $1.65 billion from April to December only on microtransactions. Over the same span of time, total purchases of the game only brought in about $890 million. So it’s clear that Take-Two sees MTX purchases like skins and battle passes as an important way to increase revenue.

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And while it’s not Zelnik’s first contract with potentially large stock bonus To sell more in-game items, CEO performance is now more dependent on MTX purchases than before. This is another sign that Take-Two is heavily investing in microtransactions across its biggest and most popular games.

Kotaku contacted Take-Two and asked about the new contract and its bonuses.

It should be noted that bonuses and incentives for the CEO are a common part of contracts for such high-profile and large companies. Zelnick’s contract extension also provides for even bigger bonuses if Take-Two’s stock prices rise on the NASDAQ in the future. So that doesn’t mean that his only concern as CEO is to make sure you and your friends buy even more Shark Cards at GTA Online. However, it’s still notable that in-game microtransactions continue to grow and have since apparently become the main way some big publishers make money in 2022.