Grand Theft Auto 5 is set to be released tonight and generate $1 billion in revenue in its first month but Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser insists game development is not about how much money a title can generate.
Speaking to Polygon Houser was asked if GTA is still relevant in this day and age to which he responded:
“I hope so. We, as a company, have tried not to get involved in that sort of discussion. You know, it’s not a sport, we’re not involved in competition with people that way. We’re trying to make something that is hopefully very enjoyable and that some people find amazing and incredible and really love, that we can hopefully make the people that invested in us some money back.
“The rest has always been something we’ve tried to shy away from, and always our challenges as we perceive them are creative. We’re trying to push video games forward to the best of our limited ability. We’re not trying to do anything more or less than that.
“The merits or demerits of games should be about creative strengths and weaknesses, and areas where they need to evolve, or areas where they’re already doing amazing stuff, or things that they supposedly can’t do, not about how much money they can make. That sort of Hollywood way of looking at things is never really been something that we at Rockstar have engaged in.”
Rockstar traditionally rotates its franchises typically releasing one game per year.
Houser has previously said that we'll probably never see a Grand Theft Auto movie and claimed that "being masculine" was so central to Grand Theft Auto 5's story that there could not be a female protagonist.