Publisher Take-Two is making plans for “cost reduction” across the company, but maintains that it isn’t thinking about rushing GTA 6 to release to boost profits.
When developer Rockstar finally released the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 in early December 2023, the response was so rapturous – as we wrote at the time, a mix of tears, excitement, and philosophical musings on death – that we can only wonder how fans will erupt when the finished game emerges.
GTA 6 is currently loosely scheduled for release in what publisher Take-Two calls “calendar 2025”. And when asked whether there was any chance of a more specific date being announced in an 8th February earnings call, the publisher’s boss Strauss Zelnick provided a firm response.
“We’re seeking perfection,” Zelnick said, as reported by Gamespot. “When we feel we’ve optimized creatively, that’s the time to release.”
Zelnick’s comments were made as it was announced that Take-Two is also making “cost reduction” plans following a somewhat flat (by its standards) set of earnings results in the last quarter of 2023. Ordinarily, this would signal a round of lay-offs – something we’ve seen a lot of in the games industry of late – but Zelnick has said that there’ll reduced expenses rather than redundancies.
“We have no current plans for layoffs,” Zelnick told Variety. “Our biggest line item expense was marketing, so we do have the opportunity to optimize many expenses that don’t involve our headcount: marketing and third party expenses, vendor charges, and the like, can still be optimized. We’re a big company, so we have always prided ourselves on being the most efficient company in the entertainment business.”
Take-Two’s shareholders will no doubt be buoyed by the silhouette of GTA 6 on the horizon; the company’s financial report states that it expects to bring in $8bn in revenue in the first quarter of 2025 – a strong indication that GTA 6 will release between January and March next year.
More on this as we get it.
