Strauss Zelnick: the UK is a great place to invest for development, but Brexit ‘a really bad plan’

In an interview with MCV, Strauss Zelnick, chairman and CEO of Take Two Interactive, discussed the UK’s strength as a place to invest for development.

Hangar 13, the developers of Mafia 3 and a subsidiary of developers 2K – themselves a subsidiary of Take Two Interactive – has recently opened a new studio in Brighton, and Zelnick says that it’s a natural choice.

"First of all, the tax regime is favorable," Zelnick says. "Secondly, there’s a lot of talented people there. When we locate a studio what we’re really looking for is a pool of talent that we’re not otherwise addressing. If you’re in any one location with a meaningful presence, we’re looking for the best and the brightest, it’s not easy to come by those people. That’s the reason we have so many studios around the world. If we could do it all in one central location I suppose we would be more efficient, but we can’t. And we like diversity of social backgrounds and diversity of opinions."

However, with Brexit on the cards, Zelnick admits that it factored into their decision in a big way.

"Concerns about Brexit has had a chilling effect on people’s willingness to work in the UK," Zelnick says. "Just to be clear, we really don’t think it’s a good thing. Isolating yourself as a small island, it’s a really bad plan."

Zelnick says that across Take Two, they’ve lost some people in their UK offices and that while recruiting they’ve found that potential hires are concerned that it won’t be safe for people who aren’t from the UK to be working there, so it could be a better choice to work elsewhere.

MCV will have more from Zelnick soon.