A certain degree of patience is to be expected from Rockstar fans.
The developer, which last year released its first game in five years with Red Dead Redemption 2, doesn’t take kindly to being rushed. As the studio responsible for the most profitable entertainment product of all time, sticking to the mantra of ‘it’ll be ready when it’s ready’ is clearly one that holds some merit, to say the least. With that said, however, Grand Theft Auto V is fast approaching six years old without a sequel in sight.
Even for Rockstar, that’s a momentous gap between releases and though Grand Theft Auto 6 is known to be in active development, there’s no telling just when the long-awaited title is expected to go gold.
The worry, of course, is that fans of the crime-caper series will have no choice but to wait a similar eight years as that seen with Red Dead Redemption and its successor, but hold that thought. As per a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Take-Two – the parent company of Rockstar – CEO Strauss Zelnick implied that changes in how the industry operates could see sequels to beloved franchises arrive much sooner than usual.
In acknowledging that ever-growing gap, Zelnick responded as so:
I don’t see it expanding further. In fact, I would expect in many instances it may compress. I think you’re right in that our ability to engage with consumers on an ongoing basis has [resulted in] some less pressure on getting to market with an all-new title. But we find that intersection between the time it takes our creators to do the best work in the industry on the one hand, and what the consumer wants, recognizing that building anticipation is a good thing.
What’s more, Zelnick doesn’t spell it out but implies that going forward, Take-Two could adopt the games as a service model that’s so widespread in today’s climate. That, he says, could help alleviate the pressure to deliver a complete product all at once.
It’s possible that the ability to deliver content on an ongoing basis for a long time after an initial release of a hit would mean that perhaps that initial release wouldn’t be as long in terms of number of hours of gameplay as previously had been demanded in a world where that was all you were getting.
Whether or not this potential method of development could be applied to Grand Theft Auto 6 remains to be seen, but with its predecessors online component continuing to rake in money like there’s no tomorrow, the switch wouldn’t be at all shocking to see.
Tell us, though, would you like to see Grand Theft Auto 6 delivered in chunks, rather than a whole, or do you view live services as the ultimate turn-off? Let us know in the comments below!