Why Take-Two Thinks You’re Already Playing the Next GTA

Rockstar Games hasn’t released a new full game in years, but Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says the company is still very active. He believes GTA Online updates are big enough to count as new standalone games.

Zelnick said that in earlier generations, some GTA Online content would have been sold as separate titles. He explained that players today engage with games for years, so developers focus more on updates than new releases.

“One could really argue that Rockstar has been putting out a new Grand Theft Auto release a couple of times a year,” Zelnick said. He added that the same applies to Red Dead Online, which also gets ongoing updates.

In the past, Rockstar released major titles almost every year. Games like GTA 4, Red Dead Redemption, and Max Payne 3 came out in close succession. But now, it’s been 12 years since GTA 5 and 8 years since Red Dead Redemption 2.

Still, Zelnick says the content Rockstar creates for its online platforms today is just as rich and detailed as full games from the past.