The excellent Grand Theft Auto franchise is no slouch. Speaking at this week’s Credit Suisse 2012 Technology Conference, Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed that the open world crime series has shipped an eye-watering 125 million units since its inception back in 1997. However, despite the brand’s success, the company refuses to release new entries on a regular basis.
“I would argue that saying to people 'make a perfect-rated title that's the standard bearer in the business and do it on this every-other-year schedule' not only isn't realistic, but it also runs the risk of taking a very special franchise and making it less special,” the executive said.
"This isn't a one title company, it's a multi-title company. While we definitely would like to iron some of the slippage out of our business, and we definitely would like to tighten some of our production schedules, the answer is not to put out any given title more frequently at the same level of quality. The answer to diversify to a greater number of titles, increase the quality level of all those and deliver more hits."
Zelnick added that he respects what Activision has achieved with the Call of Duty series, but he clarified that it’s “a different approach to ours”. He concluded: “Intellectual property that is annualised eventually seems to hit the wall, and we don't want our IP to hit the wall."
The next entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise is set to release next year. Its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto IV, launched all the way back in 2008. If you somehow missed the classic, you can currently pick it up at a discounted price point from the European PlayStation Store.
[source gamespot.com, via psu.com]
Comments 4
A refreshing public statement from Straus Zelnik; GTA has dictated new levels of immersion with each leap in console generation. Though one get's the impression from Rockstar's own, Dan Houser, that their pace of work is determined by themselves with understandably little obstruction from Take Two.
How I'd love to see a spin-off of GTA4 on Vita, starring Niko Belic: The Subsequent Years
One looks at the technical achievement of AC: Liberation and suspects Rockstar must surely be tempted to dangle a carrot to Vita owners, who who are also probably long-term Playstation fans funding those revenues.
It seems possible to me, if someone at Sony could firm up a meeting with Dan Houser to discuss it that'd be cool.
Gotta be in-house, though!
I'm glad one a year doesn't come out, would be like call of duty, assassins creed, guitar heroes, every Madden game
They don't wanna milk it like COD
This is smart of them. That way they can diversify by making other excellent projects, like Red Dead Redemption. COD never interested me, personally, but I think I'd be extremely tired of it by now if I did play it.
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