Summary
Take-TwoCEO Strauss Zelnick has defended the long wait forGrand Theft Auto 6, arguing thatGTA OnlineandRed Dead Redemptionwere more than enough to justify the gap between sequels.
During a talk at aTD Cowen conferencein New York this week (initially spotted byVGC), Zelnick said that sinceGTA 5,Rockstarhas put out “massive amounts of content”. He also speaks positively about how Rockstar has diversified since GTA 5 launched since it’s now firmly in the live service market.
GTA Online Made Up For The Wait For GTA 6, Says Take-Two
This discussion came about when the panel host asked Zelnick how Rockstar can release games more frequently in the future, and whether it’s an issue of the team not having enough resources.
“It’s important to bear in mind, it’s not like Rockstar put out GTA 5 and then sat on their hands for 12 years,” says Zelnick. “We launched GTA Online, and that’s turned into this massive living, breathing ecosystem, which continues to perform and grow to this day.
“The label totally transformed from a label that made big, standalone, monolithic games - and not just one, a number of them - to a label that actually is now in the live service business on an ongoing basis.”
He adds that there is “more to be done” in the live service space, so we can expect Rockstar to stick with it after GTA 6 launches next year, especially since these can be updated continuously.
“This isn’t a situation where there was a 12-year dearth of product,” Zelnick says. “[There’s] another little title called Red Dead which has sold about 65 million units. Red Dead Online is also really successful, and continuing to improve its operations.”
Red Dead Online is still available to play, butRockstar ceased major updates in 2022.
Given Zelnick’s comments, it doesn’t seem like Take-Two is at all disappointed with how long it’s taken for GTA 5 to get a sequel. While it’s by far the longest wait between instalments in series history, it appears that Rockstar’s publisher is happy as long as it’s releasingsomething, and even happier if that something is a live service that can be maintained and monetised for years longer than a single play game. In other words, don’t expect to get GTA 7 any faster than GTA 6.
GTA 6 is set to launch in autumn 2025. Right now, it’s confirmed to launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, althougha PC release may not have been ruled out.
