Strauss Zelnick, the chief executive officer of video-game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc, has overseen a lot of big releases in nearly two decades on the job. But none have been as massive as Grand Theft Auto VI, which is expected to be one of the biggest entertainment launches of all time when it arrives on November 19.
Anything less than an earth-shaking blockbuster would be seen as a disappointment by analysts and investors, so the stakes are high for the crime title, developed by Take-Two’s Rockstar Games subsidiary. The company has already delayed the release twice, from its originally scheduled debut last year.
"I think here our goal is to deliver to consumers something that’s never been experienced before,” Zelnick said in an interview with Bloomberg News last week at the industry’s Interactive Innovation Conference in Las Vegas. "Being on the sidelines but pretty close to the front of the sidelines is very, very exciting. And terrifying. Because the expectations are so high.”
Grand Theft Auto VI tells a story about a criminal duo in a fictional, satirical version of Miami. The previous entry in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, has sold more than 225 million copies, making it the second-best-selling game of all time after Microsoft Corp’s Minecraft and ratcheting up expectations for the latest entry.
The new Grand Theft Auto has been in development for more than eight years by a team of thousands of Rockstar employees, which also marks it as one of the most expensive games ever made. The company doesn’t share its game budgets, but big titles in the industry routinely cost hundreds of millions of dollars and Grand Theft Auto VI is estimated to be coming in significantly higher than most.
Some analysts have forecasted that the new Grand Theft Auto will sell upwards of 25 million units on day one. That means that selling 10 million units – a miraculous figure for most of Grand Theft Auto VI’s competitors – would be considered disastrous for this game.
"At a lower level, that's true of Take-Two's entire business plan on the console side,” Zelnick said. "Development costs have gone up and up. And we really do aim to deliver the highest quality entertainment on Earth. And that is costly. And AI influence is not withstanding. We haven't seen those costs decline yet. Maybe we will. Maybe we won't.”
Take-Two’s strategy is to make blockbuster games, according to Zelnick. To do that the company has to spend more freely than rivals who may be targeting a much lower number of units sold.
"That's a high-stakes game for big boys only, and I'm cool with it,” he said.
Early indications are that Grand Theft Auto VI will shatter sales records. The two trailers released so far have combined for nearly half a billion views on YouTube, and other big video games are steering clear of November releases to avoid the competition.
"We never claim success before it occurs,” said Zelnick. "We have the most amazing creative teams. We not only encourage them to pursue their passions, we insist that they do it. We try to give them unlimited financial, creative human resources and then they aim to deliver perfection.”
When asked whether Grand Theft Auto VI really had unlimited funds, Zelnick joked that his son is getting married in June and "we gave him an unlimited budget and he exceeded it.”
Unlike most competitors, Grand Theft Auto VI will be released only on the PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Although it is expected to offer a version for personal computers later, following the pattern of Rockstar’s previous games, this may be a risk for Take-Two given the PC’s outsized share of the games market today.
When he started at Take-Two in 2007, Zelnick said a release for PCs would make up perhaps 5% of sales of their basketball series, NBA 2K. "Now with regard to a big title, PC can be 45, 50% of the sales,” he said.
Why, then, isn’t Grand Theft Auto VI coming to PC immediately?
"Rockstar always starts on console because I think with regard to a release like that you're judged by serving the core,” Zelnick said. "Like really serving the core consumer. If your core consumer isn't there, if they're not served first and best, you kind of don't hit your other consumers.”
Zelnick said the window of console exclusivity was not related to the company’s marketing deal with PlayStation maker Sony Group Corp. "No,” he said. "I mean, historically Rockstar's gone to console first.”
It’s a risky decision that might wind up limiting the game’s audience, but the good news for Take-Two may be that they get two bites at the apple - a console release this November and then a second opportunity whenever the game arrives on PC, which could be a chance to drive more sales and even get some customers to buy the game twice.
"We'll see how it works out,” Zelnick said. – Bloomberg
