Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has likened Grand Theft Auto to the James Bond film franchise, and has said that he believes GTA will last a long time just like Bond, which has been around since the 1950s.
During the Jefferies Virtual Global Interactive Entertainment Conference (transcribed by Video Games Chronicle), Zelnick was quizzed about the shelf life of Take-Two’s franchises, in response to which Zelnick said that GTA, Red Dead, and NBA are three franchises that will continue selling for a long time.
If it’s really, really great it will keep going. I don’t know if you saw it, I just saw the new Bond film, that was great. And you would like every franchise to be James Bond. There are precious few entertainment franchises of any sort that fall into that category, but they do exist. And I think GTA is one of them, I think Red Dead is one of them, NBA is obviously one of them because the game [of basketball] will continue to exist.
Zelnick added that he’s against annual releases of non-sports titles because of the risk of burnout, and carried on using his Bond example by saying that he will continue to watch every Bond movie, but not if they release every few months.
I’ve always said that annualising non-sports titles runs the risk of burning out intellectual property even if it’s good, so we take the time to make something that we think is incredibly phenomenal and we also rest titles intentionally so that there’s pent-up demand for that title so that it’s a special event. I go and see a Bond film because there isn’t another one in two months – I’m going to see every Bond film.
GTA continues to make bank for Take-Two. A new game is inevitable, but it’s unlikely to release anytime soon.
[Source: VGC]
