Following yet another delay to Grand Theft Auto 6, CEO of Take Two Strauss Zelnick has casually mentioned one reason why his company's shareholders shouldn't be too worried: Grand Theft Auto 5, which obviously includes the massively successful GTA Online, has now sold over 220 million copies since its release in 2013.
The corporate mega-flex comes in an interview with Chris Dring at The Game Business, where Zelnick first of all reiterates the "ready when it's ready" approach to GTA6's release date (which has now been delayed twice).
"When we set a date, we really do believe in it," says Zelnick. "We said when we set the last date, if a game requires more polish to be the best possible version of itself, then we will give that game more time. And that’s exactly what happened. We feel really good about this release date. It’s in the same fiscal year, it happens to be a great release window, and naturally we’re really supportive of Rockstar’s approach."
"We continue to supply content to GTA Online, and in fact we’ve had terrific results there," says Zelnick. "And GTA+ continues to grow its membership. In fact, it’s had 20% growth year-over-year. And GTA 5 has sold in more than 220 million units."
This is not an exact science, but that puts GTA 5 in the top three selling games of all time. 220 million is still some way off Minecraft, which has now sold over 300 million copies, while Tetris has sold even more, albeit with pack-in versions included.
Even more incredibly, this means GTA 5 has sold approximately 20 million in the last year. Take Two last spoke about sales in May 2024 when it said GTA 5 had sold "approximately" 200 million units.
GTA 6's new release date is now November 19, 2026, which is still over a year away, and some will wonder whether this is the final delay we'll see to GTA 6. "It’s not that far in advance if you look at when you need to deliver a game to get it out," says Zelnick. "Also, we have to start marketing activities in a significant amount of time ahead of release. What we want to do is give consumers as much certainty as possible. And again, we feel quite good about this date."
It's certainly more positive PR than Rockstar's recently managed, after the company fired over 30 workers who belonged to a Discord server related to labour organising. Rockstar says this wasn't about union activities but "gross misconduct" and leaking company secrets. Another perspective came from The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain, a trade union focused on under-unionised sectors of employment, which accused Rockstar of "the most brazen act of union busting the games industry has ever seen."
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