Take-Two Interactive is one of the behemoths of game publishing, though Nintendo-focused gamers may not have played many of the company's games. It's the publishing and financial muscle behind IPs like Grand Theft Auto, Civilisation, NBA 2K, Borderlands and more, working with a broad range of developers across different genres. When you look at its many releases you struggle to find many that have come to Nintendo hardware, with very few in the Wii U generation.

Despite that the company's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has spoken positively about Nintendo and its upcoming NX hardware. Speaking to Games Industry.biz, the CEO didn't make any promises about the company being involved on the system from day one, but was described as 'excited about' the NX. In terms of solid quotes, he started with the following.

We're believers. We never want to count Nintendo out. They do it over and over and over again. So we feel pretty enthusiastic actually.

He also took a generous angle on Nintendo's current positioning in the console market courtesy of the Wii U's struggles. Perhaps reflecting on how the Wii provided a spectacular bounceback from the GameCube, he highlighted that Nintendo isn't a company that worries or panics about a period of lower sales and limited success.

It's not a slump, it's intentional. They come to market, they do really well, and then they sort of exit the market for a period of time. They've been doing it for like 150 years, and that company has been doing the same thing... They're really thoughtful, they come to market with something they really think is going to work, more often than not it really works, it blows up and then eventually they let it decline and they move on to the next thing. They don't mind having time in between.

It's an interesting interview overall, with Zelnick cautious about VR at present and even the idea of funding movies for gaming IPs. His strategy seems to ultimately be to not dive in early, but rather to wait and see what succeeds and fails before committing to projects.

We wouldn't anticipate Take-Two to be heavily supporting the NX early on, but it's pleasing to see another major industry CEO expressing optimism around Nintendo's next generation of hardware.

With thanks to Ryan Millar for the heads up.