Zelnick on the GTA VI Delay: “This Was Not a Nice to Have. This Was a Must-Have”
In a Wall Street Journal interview, Take-Two’s CEO says GTA VI “was expensive and it took a long time”, would not confirm a budget, and explained why Rockstar got more time.
Confirmed — Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke on stage in a Wall Street Journal Tech interview, posted on YouTube and reported on November 5. We read the video’s transcript; the quotes below are his.
On the delay: the call came from Jennifer Colby, who runs Rockstar on the business side, ten days after a board retreat, “so I wasn’t thrilled about the timing.” But: “This was not a nice to have. This was a must-have.” Making the best entertainment, he said, means “sometimes you have to make these expensive and inconvenient decisions.” Without naming it, he pointed to “a very high-profile release” that shipped on schedule and “had to pull the title after shipping because game didn’t work.” Some outlets read that as Cyberpunk 2077; Zelnick did not say so.
On cost: asked how much GTA VI cost, he said “It was expensive and it took a long time.” When the interviewer raised estimates of more than $1 billion, he did not confirm a figure and would not say how fast it pays back: “I never claim success before it occurs.” Asked what GTA VI must be on November 19, he answered: “spectacularly entertaining.”
The limit of this story: no budget was given, so any $1 billion figure is still an estimate, not Take-Two’s number. The interview date itself is not shown in the video.
Sources
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