In a recent interview with Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick, IGN asked the question that’s been on everyone’s minds ever since Grand Theft Auto VI was first announced: Once the next GTA comes out, what’s going to happen to GTA Online?
It’s a fair question. People have spent hundreds of thousands on GTA Online over the years, with the combined revenue from both Rockstar Games’ GTA V and GTA Online totalling upwards of $8.6 billion as of January this year.
So, once a brand new GTA Online drops, following the release of GTA VI, what’s going to happen to the old one?
Advert
Well, Zelnick was only willing to talk about the topic in an abstract sense, but he did pretty much say that GTA Online is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
“I'm going to speak theoretically only because I'm not going to talk about a particular project when an announcement hasn't been made… But generally speaking, we support our properties when the consumers are involved with those titles,” Zelnick told IGN.
“As an example, we launched NBA 2K Online in China, I think originally in 2012 if I'm not mistaken. And then we launched NBA 2K Online 2 in China in 2017. If I'm not mistaken. We did not sunset Online 1. They both are still in the market and they serve consumers and they're alive and we have this massive audience… So we've shown a willingness to support legacy titles when a community wants to be engaged with them.”
Unsurprising, really, as I’m sure (even following the release of GTA VI) the server costs for GTA Online won’t outweigh the revenue it generates for a good few years yet.
Advert
It’ll be interesting to see how drastic the drop-off of GTA Online will be though, once its successor GTA Online 2 drops after GTA VI’s release.
Topics: Grand Theft Auto, GTA Online, GTA 6, GTA 5, Rockstar Games, Take-Two