One of the more interesting dynamics in the upcoming transition to the next generation consoles is the sheer number of quality games releasing this year for the current generation systems. Grand Theft Auto V is undoubtedly the biggest of these current-gen latecomers, and its September 17th release date puts it just a few short weeks before the (presumed) launch of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Speaking to MCV, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick insisted that the close proximity Grand Theft Auto V‘s launch date to the next-gen consoles will not have any impact on consumer demand for the highly anticipated game.
“Grand Theft Auto V is the most highly anticipated release of our biggest franchise. It features the largest, most dynamic and most diverse open world Rockstar Games has yet created. The installed base of current generation consoles is estimated to be in excess of 120 million, and most of those consumers have been waiting for Grand Theft Auto V for years. Therefore, we expect there to be enormous consumer demand for Grand Theft Auto V regardless of when the next-generation consoles are released.”
While Zelnick’s comments could be mistaken for overconfidence, it is all but impossible to conceive of a situation where Grand Theft Auto V fails to become the best selling game of 2013. Not only that, but the fact that Take-Two is (at least in the short-term) not developing a next-gen version of the game will likely do far more harm to the adoption rates of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One than the other way around.
It is going to be extremely interesting to see how all of this shakes out later this year, but I’d say it is a good bet that Sony and Microsoft execs are not exactly thrilled that Grand Theft Auto V was delayed into their next-gen launch window.
