During a call reporting earnings for the second quarter of its fiscal 2014 on Tuesday, Take-Two discussed the future of "Grand Theft Auto V" and its multiplayer title "Grand Theft Auto Online." The conversation covered the potential for microtransactions, new DLC and investments into server stability.
According to IGN, CEO Strauss Zelnick began the discussion by talking about the massive success of "Grand Theft Auto V" and accredits the launch with stellar timing on Rockstar's part.
"I think the release window for GTA 5 was phenomenal. There was an enormous installed base, massive anticipation and virtually no significant competitive releases. I was questioned an awful lot, you may recall, about the timing of that release, and I think Rockstar made a great decision in putting it out when they did, and really optimized the intersection of what a great game can do and what an audience wanted and when they wanted it."
The developer then went on to talk about the game's multiplayer experience and how it will adapt to the release of next-gen consoles in the next few weeks.
"We haven't discussed any plans for GTA, at all, in relation to next-generation. So nothing to say there," Zelnick said.
This statement led to questions about microtransactions and other DLC content. The last GTA had DLC but it came far too late after the game's launch.
"I think the biggest difference here is that when Rockstar came out with downloadable content for GTA IV, this was groundbreaking stuff. It had never been done before. And they took a big creative risk and delighted consumers and made money in the process, so it was really a great result," Zelnick said. "And we, at this company, and our labels specifically, have learned a lot about what consumers want. What we find is, when you have a hit product, there is an opportunity to continue to delight consumers with ongoing content, and that always remains our focus. Our focus around here does not start with 'how do we look at our consumers? They showed up in droves. Now how do we extract more money from their pockets?' We genuinely don't. What we think about is, 'the reason our consumers showed up is because we delighted them in a way they didn't expect.' As high as our expectations were, we blew them out of the water and we did that because of the extraordinary creative work done at Rockstar."
"That's the way this company operates," he continued, "and then having done that, we think, 'okay, now what is the appropriate way to price this experience so that we can appropriately compensate all of our stakeholders?' The people who create the products, the employees who work at this company and, of course, our shareholders. And we've always looked at pricing all of our content with an eye towards giving people more than they pay for, trying to over-deliver. So GTA Online is free with the game. First time we've ever done anything like this. It's incredibly ambitious and taxing and challenging. And consumers love it, and they're showing up in great magnitude. As Karl said, there is currency in the game and there are plans, at some point, to make that currency available for cash payments in addition to other ways you earn currency in the game. We're going to let Rockstar talk more about that. We don't need to talk more about that today. But for sure, we're commercial folks, and we are in business. But where we start here is with a passion for what we do, then we think about how what we do is going to delight consumers. And then, and only then, do we think about how we're going to monetize it."
The first add-on content for "Grand Theft Auto Online" is set to arrive in early November.
