Take-Two are one of the foremost developers of modern gaming, with the Grand Theft Auto series and other titles like Red Dead Redemption under their belts. They choose not to release games on a yearly basis while many others do, and have now explained their reasons.
Games like FIFA, Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed are titles instantly recognisable for being pumped out yearly by their publishers, often to the dismay of gamers across the globe. This can’t be said for Take-Two’s non-sport titles, as they’ve recently explained why they favour a more methodical approach.
RockstarCEO Strauss Zelnick spoke at MKM Partners Investor Day in New York:
The market asks us, ‘Why don’t you annualize your titles?’ We think with the non-sports titles, we are better served to create anticipation and demand. On the one hand to rest the title and on the other hand to have the highest quality in the market, which takes time. You can’t do that annually.
While Red Dead, GTA and Max Payne won’t be making an appearance every year, Take-Two still release yearly iterations of sports titles like NBA 2k and WWE 2k, to keep up to date with the market – but things will be different with their IP’s.
VideogamerZelnick continued:
What we would like to do is be able to have enough hit intellectual properties in any given year, whether we have Title A or Title B, is not the issue. We’ll have a handful of really great franchises and new intellectual properties that together really have the economic impact of an annualized business without the detriments of an annualized business.
Zelnick also said in the speech that future titles – particularly Rockstar’s – will release to bigger fanfare, creating “massive consumer events.”
While no new games were announced, Zelnick did refer to GTA and Red Dead Redemption as “permanent” franchises. Could this mean a new Red Dead game is on the horizon?
Mark is the Gaming Editor for UNILAD. Having grown up a gaming addict, he’s been deeply entrenched in culture and spends time away from work playing as much as possible. Mark studied music at University and found a love for journalism through going to local gigs and writing about them for local and national publications.