Take-Two: Social networks will bring "a true mass audience" to games

Discussing emerging markets for Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two, CEO Ben Feder has said that social networks will bring a true mass market audience to the videogame business.

His comments come after the company revealed plans to launch a new Civilisation game on Facebook, to launch in 2010, and as rival publisher Electronic Arts accelerated its growth in the area with the recent acquisition of social games company Playfish.

"Social network games is an area that promises to deliver a true mass audience to the videogame world and we're bringing Civilisation Network to Facebook next year," Feder told the audience at the FBR Capital Markets conference in New York.

He also pointed to online play in Asia as another growth area for the company, with the publisher expecting NBA 2K Online to succeed in China and surrounding regions when released next year.

"Asia is a burgeoning area for us, it's a growth area. Online games are especially important to that region and especially important to Take-Two, and we're specifically proud to be partnering with Tencent [Holdings], which is one of China's top online game operators, to bring our NBA franchise to Asia," he said.

Feder acknowledged that the past year has been "challenging" for Take-Two and the industry as a whole, but he expects the company to perform well in 2010 with four sequels due for release – BioShock 2, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3 and Mafia 2.

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