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Fortune
Fortune
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez

The CEO behind Grand Theft Auto VI doesn’t play video games, but is staking $1.5 billion on the biggest game launch of the decade

(Credit: Aaron Schwartz—Bloomberg via Getty Images)

After 15 years churning out hit titles like Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and NBA2k, this CEO knows what makes a hit—even if he doesn’t play video games himself. 

Strauss Zelnick, a Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School graduate, has been CEO of Take-Two Interactive Software since 2011. During that time, he has helped skyrocket the company’s stock price by more than 1,600% from about $12 per share when he took charge to $216 per share as of Tuesday’s close. He has also quintupled the company’s net revenue during his tenure, with 2025’s full-year number coming in at $5.6 billion compared to less than $1 billion before he took over.

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