Finally, GTA 6 has been announced. The head of the publisher, Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick explains in an interview that despite all the success of GTA 5, it cannot be taken for granted that GTA 6 will be a great success. One still has to work hard.
Where do the information come from? Strauss Zelnick has been the CEO, chairman, and largest shareholder of publisher Take-Two since 2007. The publicly traded company based in New York also distributes franchises such as BioShock, Borderlands, Civilization, NBA2k, or XCOM, in addition to GTA.
Zelnick gave an interview to the site Inverse on November 7. Shortly thereafter, Rockstar announced the time when GTA 6 will be officially presented .
GTA 5 was and still is extremely successful:
We are constantly looking over our shoulder at the competition
This is what Zelnick says about the chances of success for GTA 6: GTA 5 is the second best-selling video game of all time after Minecraft, but Zelnick does not want to be lulled into complacency by the success:
We are constantly looking over our shoulder at the competition. We are always afraid or we are not doing enough. There is no one who says: This is a perfect product. We are really proud of ourselves. Let’s take a breather and go to the beach. We need to wake up in the morning and do it again, take the next step.
Inverse quotes an academic who attests to Zelnick that he has the right attitude for such a high-risk business. It makes sense not to raise the expectations of players and investors too high: Zelnick tends to promise little and then deliver much more.
Don’t celebrate victory before it’s achieved
In another interview with GI.biz Zelnick said: One does not tend to set expectations for future releases. But the job is to be the most innovative and efficient entertainment company in the world. Every creative team in the company strives for perfection. However, one does not want to “claim victory too early until it is achieved.”
He praises Rockstar especially for breaking the normal fatigue curve in GTA Online that usually plagues both blockbuster games and live service games. That is “nothing short of extraordinary.”
“Everyone is currently working on Artificial Intelligence”
This is what Zelnick says about AI: In the interview with Inverse, Zelnick is also asked about the possibilities of using artificial intelligence. He sees in gaming AI primarily as an option to design NPCs and develop more dialogue options to give games higher replay value.
This potential to use AI here he finds exciting, but also time-consuming:
“It could be better, but it will most likely neither be faster nor cheaper.”
Everyone is currently working on Artificial Intelligence: At the moment, one plays a character and interacts with NPCs. The interaction with the NPCs follows a script. And the NPCs are usually not particularly exciting. However, one could now, thanks to AI, imagine that all NPCs would be more interesting characters.
Will there be a movie about GTA? Zelnick apparently thinks little of the idea of a movie about GTA or Red Dead Redemption 2: These are very risky undertakings and he is rather risk-averse when it comes to his brands. If Take-Two issues licenses to film their games and those films then flop, it could damage the brands.
