Grand Theft Auto Won't Become An Annual Franchise, Take-Two CEO Says

[Andy Chalk]

Grand Theft Auto Won't Become An Annual Franchise, Take-Two CEO Says

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick says that too much of a good thing is not a good thing.

In 2010 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96583-GTA-Silence-Hurting-Take-Two-Says-Analyst] he essentially repeated the complaint, stating that Take-Two games take two years longer than the industry average to develop and "until the company can streamline its average development time... it cannot deliver sustainable profits."

But in 2014, Take-Two appears to be riding high, Grand Theft Auto is bigger than ever and Zelnick says he has no intention of trying to wring more out of the franchise than he's already getting, telling MCV that oversaturing the market risks damaging the permanency of the franchise.

"It is great that consumers anticipate our titles, like they anticipate the next James Bond film. Our goal is to create permanent franchises," he said. And whereas Take-Two relied primarily on physical game sales in the past, the advent of DLC allows fans to "engage and spend money on an ongoing basis," alleviating some of the pressure to produce rapid-fire sequels in order to maintain revenue streams.

"70 per cent of people that have played Grand Theft Auto V while online have played GTA Online, which is a free-to-play experience. And recurrent consumer spending related to GTA Online represented nearly half of our digitally delivered revenue in the quarter," he said. "So people are voting that they want to stay engaged and they are voting with their wallets."

It's certainly a different approach than the annualization championed by Activision and Ubisoft, and the drop [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132008-Take-Two-Share-Price-Tumbles-Nearly-Ten-Percent] in Take-Two's share price following its impressive third-quarter financial results lends credence to Pachter's concerns. But from a gamer perspective, Zelnick's unhurried attitude is most definitely welcome.

Source: MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/take-two-we-don-t-need-to-release-gta-yearly/0128257]


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[Dark Knifer]

Was there any every doubt of this?

What they have going seems to be working just fine so why bother changing it.

 

[RJ 17]

Ahhhhh, the good ol' debate of quantity over quality. Personally I'd argue that GTA V being the most successful game ever made in the history of ever lends weight to the "quality" side of the debate.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/10/09/gta-5-breaks-seven-guinness-world-records-as-global-addiction-continues-4139807/

 

[MysticSlayer]

Not too surprising, but still good to hear.

Also, does the share price drop really lend credence to Pachter's complaint? They released the first game in years to beat Call of Duty, combined that with a few other strong games, and reported incredible earnings, yet it was all still considered a failure because they didn't do as good as analysts wanted. If anything, I think it shows that analysts, such as Pachter, are expecting way too much and don't fully understand the gaming industry as much as they would like to think they do.

Sure, in the end, the analysts have incredible say and that will create problems for Take-Two, but it seems that Take-Two's strategy is working well otherwise, particularly when we consider long-term investments in a franchise.

 

[Adzma]

It's sad days when it has to be explicitly stated that a company will not milk their franchises.

 

[GonzoGamer]

idk
During the ps2 years they came out with a GTA game almost every year and they were all pretty good and a couple of those were mindblowing.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

idk
During the ps2 years they came out with a GTA game almost every year and they were all pretty good and a couple of those were mindblowing.

Well, PS2 Development isn't exactly the same as PS3
Besides, As great as that would be, I'm just going to let Rockstar do their thing, they are kinda like Valve if Valve actually got games made on time.
This year or next, I'm in for something special

 

[Olas]

So he doesn't want to run his franchise into the ground by milking it with yearly releases until it loses it's reputation and public interest à la Guitar Hero,Tomb Raider,Final Fantasy, and sooner or later Call of Duty?

 

[pearcinator]

Pachter is an idiot. Taking his 'advice' would actually be a hindrance on the gaming industry.

 

[deathbydeath]

I'm going to sit on the side of the camp saying his excuses are bullshit. More specifically, Zelnick would love to be making billions every year if he could, but GTA games are of such a large scale that it's impossible to crank them out on an annual basis. He wants his games out as fast as possible, but that's simply impossible with the hand of franchises he's been dealt and wants to spin this into customer loyalty.

 

[gargantual]

Considering the fact that the other two games that made 2K the most money in 2013, 'WWE 2K14' and 'NBA 2K14,' are still annual titles, I'm not sure these guys should be held up as examples.

They offered to take the WWE franchise after THQ died. Anything that'll generate money after the SEC got on their shit. They neeeed 2K and Rockstar releases to do well. But yeah although they screwed up 2K14 at least its another publisher with room to release sports games outside of EA.

 

[GonzoGamer]

idk
During the ps2 years they came out with a GTA game almost every year and they were all pretty good and a couple of those were mindblowing.

Well, PS2 Development isn't exactly the same as PS3
Besides, As great as that would be, I'm just going to let Rockstar do their thing, they are kinda like Valve if Valve actually got games made on time.
This year or next, I'm in for something special

Yea, I'm not exactly going to complain about them taking their time to make another huge new game; V was worth the wait. However, if they ask us to pay $20 for another mission pack like with GTA4, I'll have words. I'm hoping that if we get another premium priced DLC pack it will at least include some new areas for SP and MP.

 

[CaptainMidlands]

Considering the fact that the other two games that made 2K the most money in 2013, 'WWE 2K14' and 'NBA 2K14,' are still annual titles, I'm not sure these guys should be held up as examples.

They offered to take the WWE franchise after THQ died. Anything that'll generate money after the SEC got on their shit. They neeeed 2K and Rockstar releases to do well. But yeah although they screwed up 2K14 at least its another publisher with room to release sports games outside of EA.

With WW2k14 i think the problem was more most of the groundwork had been done by THQ all ready and the deadline did not allow them much room to change it, we will have to wait for WWE 2k15 to see what 2k can actually do with the license i think

All so not strictly Annual but up to GTAV, we have got a GTA release every two years since 1997

 

[Glaice]

Good, we don't need annual releases. Things just get stale and boring after a while the way Call of Duty has.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Still waiting for a PC release date..just saying Mr.CEO of Take-Two.

This is barely news. GTA games have always have at least 4-5 years in between games.

 

[Strazdas]

Well their usual 4-year-cycle seems to work as far as selling games. also lets people forget how awful GTA 4 was. even modders didnt manage to fix it.
Now, if only GTA 5 came out on a device that can actually run it.....