By Rockstar Games isn’t releasing new titles as frequently as in the past, but the CEO of parent company Take-Two believes that many of the developer’s online updates are so “rich” that they would have been regarded as “standalone” games a few console generations earlier.
There was a time when Rockstar Games released major titles almost every year. Games like Bully, Manhunt 2, GTA 4, GTA Chinatown Wars, Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, Max Payne 3, and GTA 5 hit the shelves in consecutive years, alongside various expansions and re-releases, which seems almost unbelievable today. However, it has been eight years since Rockstar launched Red Dead Redemption 2, and twelve years since the gap between GTA 5 and GTA 6.
When discussing the elongated development phases in an interview with The Game Business, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick noted that the developers in his portfolio are simply adapting to an evolving market where players “interact continuously with our hits.”
Zelnick believes that updates for Red Dead Online and GTA Online are comparable to some of the company’s older standalone games regarding content quality.
“Concerning Grand Theft Auto, we have Grand Theft Auto Online, and Rockstar has consistently provided content for it, some of which is so substantial that it would have been considered a standalone title 15 years ago,” he explains.
“One could make a strong case that Rockstar has been releasing new Grand Theft Auto content a few times annually,” he adds. “The same applies to Red Dead Online, which continues to thrive.”
Furthermore, Zelnick stated GTA 5 is the “standard-bearer for our industry,” yet he found the excitement for GTA 6 to be “quite surprising”