Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, has signalled that they have lots of plans for gamers on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC.
And while the main thing fans want is an update regarding the GTA 6 release date, it looks like it will be one of just a number of next-gen projects coming to market.
Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two, was recently asked about the company’s plans for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, as well as what free-to-play titles could be coming next.
During the event, via Seeking Alpha, Zelnick didn’t give a huge amount of detail on what games will be coming next, but he did reveal 93 games released by Take-Two over the next five years.
One of these will be Grand Theft Auto VI, although gamers will be hoping it’s arriving sooner rather than later.
Zelnick revealed that less than 30 would be free-to-play, adding: “As you know, I think because we’ve talked about it, we vastly increased our pipeline. We expect to bring something like 93 titles to market in the next 5 years, something like double we were doing 5 years ago, and 26 of those 93 titles are expected to be free-to-play. So clearly, we believe in the business. I would observe though the ratios are lower in the business.
“And obviously, risk profiles are different, while your upfront production costs and your upfront marketing costs may be lower than AAA console title, depending on what you’re up to, they may not be that much lower. And of course, your basic return is in no way guaranteed.
“Then apply to that a much lower hit ratio than our core console business. And the good news is that in success, a free-to-play title can do really, really, really well. The other news is that in failure, especially if you’re spending more on production and marketing, that can create a real problem. So, it’s a balancing act…
“We also know there’s still a great continued opportunity within what has historically for the past 5, 6, 7 years in our business model, which is an exceedingly strong frontline release for which people pay followed by incremental opportunities for the consumer to engage to get along with that monetization opportunities.”
Speaking on the impact of next-gen consoles, Zelnick added: “We’re just trying to make the best entertainment that anyone could possibly make.
“We’ve already launched two titles for next-gen consoles, NBA 2K21 and Borderlands 3. And we’re incredibly excited about what new technology will enable us to do not only on these consoles but in the PC format, which always tracks the same technical gains on anything that makes we experienced better.
“So quicker load times, better graphics, better memory, anything enhances — potentially enhances the consumer experience and a better consumer experience will obviously cause people to consume more of it.”
Another piece of good news for gamers is that there are currently no financial restrictions being placed on any existing projects, which will likely include GTA 6.
Interestingly enough, Zelnick did reveal one factor that can cause problems, and that’s not being able to staff up to keep up with demand.
Zelnick revealed that while this brings its own challenges, the company has gone on a massive recruitment, which should prove useful when it comes to launching Grand Theft Auto 6.
“The issue is the rare resource you have to allocate is creative talent. We, like our biggest competitors, have plenty of open slots. We’re always looking for the best and the brightest,” confirmed during the investment event.
“So, we can’t just line people up and fill those open slots. And that is our bottleneck for increasing further our production capacity, which is why we’ve hired so many developers in the past years. And that obviously has been a big part of our headcount growth and much, much less, so our administrative fixed overhead.”
What has been shared by various sources suggest that GTA 6 still years away from launch.
And unless things change, the Grand Theft Auto VI release date isn’t expected to be announced until the second half of 2021.
And even after that, the game might not hit shelves until 2022, making for the longest wait yet for a Grand Theft Auto game.
