Tag: Take-Two Interactive

Rockstar Games forced to release GTA VI trailer after leak

Forget Marvel, Star Wars, Harry Potter or James Bond. None of the next installments of these popular franchises will likely hold a candle to the anticipation of a new Grand Theft Auto sequel slated to land sometime in 2025.

The first trailer for GTA VI, in which gamers live out their fantasies as denizens of the criminal underworld, dropped on Tuesday after a leak on social media prompted publisher Rockstar Games to move forward with the planned December 5th reveal.

Not even a day later and the topic already dominates the trending list on YouTube, with over 7 million likes and counting. The 62 million views prompted a sore Linda Yaccarino—still in damage control mode following Elon Musk’s car crash interview—to plead with Rockstar to embed the trailer on X rather than direct her audience away and onto Google’s rival streaming platform.

The fascination around the game is partly because it’s been a full decade since its landmark predecessor landed. When GTA V launched in 2013, the game obliterated sales records, needing just three days to cross the $1 billion threshold.

It holds the record for the highest-grossing entertainment property of any kind—film, music or book—shipping 190 million units to date and still commands a price many years later between $20 and $30 depending on console generation.

“Grand Theft Auto VI continues our efforts to push the limits of what’s possible in highly immersive, story-driven open-world experiences,” promised Rockstar Games president Sam Houser in a statement, calling it the “biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet”.

Rockstar, founded by Houser and his brother Dan 25 years ago this month, revealed little of the story other than it appears to center on a Bonnie & Clyde pair of small-time criminals.

The scenery shifts from GTA V’s San Andreas, a microcosm of California, to the streets of Vice City, which served as neon-lit backdrop of the 2002 GTA installment by the same name. Given all the recent buzz around Miami as a new symbol of America’s wealth gap, Rockstar could hardly have picked a timelier setting for its protagonists’ fictional crime spree.

‘Dependent on the future success’

Like any trailer, it should whet the appetite for the game’s arrival sometime in the next 13 to 24 months (if the predecessor is anything to go by, expect a release in autumn just in time for the holiday shopping season).

But it is little indication about the quality of the finished product, and there are big questions surrounding the next installment.

Two of the most important figures credited with the franchise’s chart-topping success moved on after GTA V launched. Lead writer Dan Houser, the creative brain behind the franchise and Rockstar’s co-founder together with brother Sam, left in 2020.

Producer and game designer Leslie Benzies departed to found his own studio and is now working on a similar GTA-style game believed to incorporate blockchain elements from the crypto world.

Landing another hit is crucial for Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two Interactive Software. A decade ago when it launched the previous installment, consolidated annual revenue almost doubled.

“We are dependent on the future success of our Grand Theft Auto products,” Take-Two warned investors in its latest full fiscal year report.

Thanks to developers like Rockstar, CD Projekt Red and most recently Larian Studios, video games as a genre have long shed the stigma as a form of low art, becoming perhaps the major force in the entertainment industry.

“Research has shown that Gen Z and Gen Alpha prefer gaming to any other form of entertainment—more than social media, more than watching television or listening to music, more than going to the movie theatre,” said Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who himself landed a hit with this year’s Harry Potter-themed Hogwarts Legacy game.

On Thursday the industry is set to celebrate its equivalent of the Oscars, with titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom hot contenders for the top prize as Game of the Year.

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Christiaan Hetzner

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December 5, 2023
Xbox Expected A Red Dead Redemption 2 Next-Gen Update, Wanted It On Game Pass

Fans have long wanted Rockstar Games to release a next-gen patch or updated version of Red Dead Redemption 2 that would let the large game take advantage of the more powerful PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles. That’s not happened yet, even though many have speculated about it. And new documents reveal that even Microsoft was expecting a next-gen RDR 2 to be out by now.

Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger

Released in 2018, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a massive open-world western and a prequel to the original, critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption. When RDR 2 was first launched, there weren’t any next-gen machines out yet, so the game only came out on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. However, after Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online received fancy next-gen upgrades in 2022, many assumed RDR 2 would get similarly improved ports. Five years after its initial launch, it still hasn’t happened, leaving many fans disappointed and frustrated.

In newly leaked documents and emails, it turns out the folks at Xbox were, like so many Rockstar fans, also expecting a next-gen update. In a document showing Summer 2022 emails between Xbox boss Phil Spencer and other execs about acquiring more games for the company’s subscription service, Game Pass, we see a chart that is basically a wishlist of potential games to add. And listed in that chart is an entry for RDR 2’s “gen 9” release.

Screenshot: Kotaku

According to Microsoft, the company expected Rockstar Games to launch this “gen 9” version of RDR2 in FY23Q2 aka between October and November of 2022. In the doc, Microsoft suggests that Rockstar and parent company Take-Two Interactive will want around $5 million a month to bring the next-gen version of RDR2 to Game Pass on day one. Further, it estimated around 10 million hours of the game would be played each month.

Based on the chart, Microsoft considered its chances to secure RDR2’s next-gen port as a day one Game Pass launch “very low” and listed its “Wow Factor” at medium. It also wasn’t sure if it would be able to get RDR2’s 2 PC port as part of the deal.

Of course, all of this planning and preparation was for nothing, as Red Dead Redemption 2 still doesn’t have a next-gen update or port. It’s a shame, as the game would look wonderful on the more powerful machines and would likely be able to run at 60fps, a big upgrade over the 30fps the game is currently locked to. Alas, it seems Rockstar is focused on the future and is busy developing the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, which we know quite a bit about thanks to a separate, different leak from last year.

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Zack Zwiezen

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September 19, 2023
Take-Two CEO: $50 For Red Dead Redemption On Switch, PS4 Is ‘Great Value’

Today, during a Take-Two earnings call, the publisher’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick, responded to the $50 price tag attached to the upcoming PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch ports of beloved cowboy adventure Red Dead Redemption. According to him, that’s the right price. And he had no additional news for PC players hoping to play the classic game on their preferred platform.

Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger

On August 7, following endless rumors online, Rockstar announced new PS4 and Switch conversions of the original Red Dead Redemption. The PS4 version will also be playable on PS5 and, alongside the Switch port, will launch on August 17. Fans weren’t happy though, as the ports appear to be just that, rather than a more ambitious remake or remaster. Sure, it’s nice that a beloved game like RDR will now be available on more platforms, but the $50 price tag, along with news that these new versions wouldn’t include multiplayer or any enhanced visual options, led to plenty of people online being (rightfully) disappointed. And now, the day after announcing the news, Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive held an earnings call in which its CEO seemed impassive to the fan disappointment and backlash.

As reported by IGN, after the earnings call, Zelnick was asked why the publisher had picked such a high price point for the relatively barebones ports, especially as the 2010 Xbox 360 version is cheaper and has been out for years via backward compatibility.

“That’s just what we believe is the commercially accurate price for it,” Zelnick said.

Rockstar Games / Nintendo

Take-Two’s EVP of finance, Hannah Sage, mentioned that the newly revealed releases aren’t just the original Red Dead Redemption, but also include the DLC expansion, Undead Nightmare. When Zelnick was asked if the expansion being included was the reason for the $50 price tag, he didn’t give a straight answer.

“[Red Dead Redemption] was a great standalone game in its own right when it was originally released, so we feel like it’s a great bundle for the first time, and certainly a great value for consumers,” the CEO replied.

The original Xbox 360 Red Dead Redemption is currently $30 on the Xbox store and Undead Nightmare is $10. That adds up to $40, less than the $50 price tag of the upcoming, plain-jane ports. (And keep in mind that many players already bought the Xbox 360 version back in the day, so won’t have to rebuy the game to enjoy it via Xbox Series X/S backward compatibility.)

Take-Two dodges questions about Red Dead Redemption coming to PC

When Kotaku asked for a follow-up statement via email, a Take-Two representative declined to comment further on the game or Zelnick’s answer. Take-Two also ignored questions about the existing backward-compatible Xbox 360 version.

Continuing the trend of ignoring or dodging questions, during the post-call meeting, Zelnick was asked by IGN about a possible PC port of RDR, and answered vaguely, telling the outlet he leaves those announcements for studios to make.

“It depends on the vision that the creative teams have for a title,” said Zelncik. “And in the absence of having a powerful vision—for something that we would do with a title—we might bring it [back out] in its original form. We’ve done that. And in certain instances we might remaster or remake, so it really depends on the title and how the label feels about it, the platform, and what we think the opportunity is for consumers.”

I didn’t spot an answer in that mess of vague words and sentences. Perhaps, after Red Dead Redemption re-releases on PS4 and Switch on August 17, we can get a PC version, or at least a better answer as to why there might never be one.

Zack Zwiezen

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August 8, 2023
GTA Publisher’s Boss Not Seeing Any ‘Pushback’ On $70 Games

During Take-Two Interactive’s recent earnings call with investors, CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked about other publishers selling AAA games at a discounted price shortly after launch. His company has been one of the many to start charging $70 for games, and at least according to him, he hasn’t seen any “pushback” on the new price point.

An Anime That Might Make You Put Your Minecraft Bed Next To Someone

On May 17, Take-Two Interactive—the publisher behind games like NBA 2K, GTA V, Borderlands, and BioShock—released its 2022 earnings report alongside a press release that seemed to hint at GTA VI-levels of success coming in the next year. As part of this process, the company also conducted a call with investors, who asked questions about Take-Two’s plans and past performance. It was here that one person brought up AAA game prices.

As spotted by VGC, during the call an analyst pointed out that some other, unnamed, publishers had started providing discounts on new AAA games “within days and weeks” of launch. The conversation around game prices has been bubbling for a while now as more publishers (including Take-Two Interactive) join the $70 game club, including Nintendo with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. But Zelnick claimed that consumers don’t really mind.

“We’re not seeing a pushback on frontline price,” Zelnick said. “What we’re seeing is consumers are seeking to limit their spending by going either to the stuff they really, really care about, blockbusters, or to value, and sometimes it could be both. And the good news is, we have a bunch of blockbusters and we have a wonderful catalog.”

The rise of $70 games

Basically, Zelnick believes that gamers are just buying fewer games and focusing on getting a couple of big, expensive $70 blockbuster titles or are willing to pick up older or smaller games that cost less. As the video game industry continues to struggle with layoffs and big games failing to sell well, it seems odd that Zelnick is fine with people being unable to afford more games and instead having to “limit their spending.” But I’m not a big rich CEO, so what do I know?

The reality is that while gamers are definitely vocally pushing back on $70 games—Zelnick should check out the comments on literally any story about these pricey titles—the reality is that publishers are going to move forward anyway. There’s too much money to be made, and as Tears of the Kingdom’s massive sale numbers have shown, a $70 game can sell like hotcakes if it’s good enough.

And as Microsoft, Sega, and other companies confirm future releases will cost $10 more than the old $60 price point, it seems clear that, pushback or not, we are truly in the era of $70 games.

Zack Zwiezen

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May 19, 2023
Congress Wants To Know What The Biggest Game Companies Are Doing To ‘Combat Extremism’

Photo: Mark Wilson (Getty Images)

A group of seven lawmakers are sending a letter to the world’s biggest video game companies tomorrow, asking each of them what steps they’re taking to combat “harassment and extremism” in online video games.

As Axios reports, the seven Democratic representatives—including Lori Trahan (Massachusetts), Katie Porter (California) and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon—have all co-signed a letter, which is looking to “better understand the processes you have in place to handle player reports of harassment and extremism encounters in your online games, and ask for consideration of safety measures pertaining to anti-harassment and anti-extremism”.

Unsurprisingly, the list includes companies like Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty, Overwatch), Microsoft (Xbox), Sony (PlayStation), Roblox, Take-Two Interactive (Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K), Riot Games (League of Legends, Valorant), Epic (Fortnite) and Electronic Arts (Battlefield, FIFA & Madden).

Those are all massive international companies, most of them with thousands of employees spread out all over the world, and responsible for some of the planet’s most popular and enduring online games. To want to grill them, when so many of them are based in the US—or at least most popular in the US—is a pretty obvious move!

Hilariously, though, whoever put the list together of which companies to target has clearly just gone down a list of “most popular games”, not “biggest companies”, because among those titans of industry are Innersloth, the developers of Among Us.

Among Us may be a huge hit, but Innersloth are also a tiny team. How tiny? This tiny:

Among Us Wins Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2020

Innsersloth’s webiste says the studio currently has 20 employees. I don’t know how much they’re going to be able to explain when their game has you playing as a cute little astronaut, doesn’t have voice chat and only lets players communicate via a menu of pre-written lines.

But then nobody has to legally reply to the letter at all, it’s just a letter, so maybe they can just reply “sorry, think this is meant for Xbox!” and get on with their day.

Luke Plunkett

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December 15, 2022