Grand Theft Auto V has one of the longest lifespans of any single video game, rivalled almost exclusively by The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Recently, it was announced that Grand Theft Auto VI is currently in active development and it raised several fears from the community at large as to how Rockstar will approach the game. It’s long been a belief that Rockstar may move towards a model similar to that of Grand Theft Auto Online in an attempt to make as much profit as possible, but during a recent earnings call that fear seems to have been dispelled.
Strauss Zelnick, the head of Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two, stated in an interview that it is his belief that single-player games will ever go away and that Rockstar Games will continue to focus on them going forward.
“There was a time where a couple of our competitors were taking the position that single-player was dead. We never took that position. We know that there’s a role for single-player. I believe there will be a role going forward. Then there are certain games meant to be only multiplayer experiences. Rockstar is known for storytelling, and yes, Rockstar is also known for these fantastic open-world multiplayer experiences. They clearly both do really well”
It remains to be seen how this mindset will translate to Grand Theft Auto VI. While Rockstar Games may claim that they believe in single-player as a gameplay model, and don’t want to move away from that, there’s also the small consideration of the $2.5 million that GTA V is making Rockstar per day, with most of this coming as a result of Grand Theft Auto Online. It would be remiss of Rockstar to not have a dedicated team working on an online portion of the game, but they first have to figure out the best way to translate that to a new generation and to a whole new game, while still ensuring that at no stage the storytelling takes a toll.
