Take-Two Boss Says It's 'Shown a Willingness to Support Legacy Titles' Amid Questions About the Future of GTA Online Post-GTA 6

ign.com:

What happens to GTA Online when Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out? That’s a question a lot of GTA Online players have been asking ever since GTA 6 was announced. And now, as GTA 6’s fall 2025 release date approaches, they’re no closer to an answer.

GTA Online is Rockstar’s hugely profitable live service that continues to pull in players even now, well over a decade since launch. Its enduring appeal and ability to print money is thought to have influenced Rockstar’s decision to prioritize the live service over story DLC for Grand Theft Auto 5, much to the annoyance of some fans. But there is a more pressing concern looming over the horizon.

When GTA 6 eventually comes out, it is expected to bring with it a new and improved GTA Online. Perhaps this will be GTA Online 2. Perhaps it will be called GTA Online, as before. Either way, players of the existing GTA Online have expressed concern that all their time, effort, and money spent in the current GTA Online will be left behind for a potential clean break later this year.

So, why invest time and money into GTA Online now, in early 2025, when the new GTA Online is potentially due out in perhaps eight months or so? That’s a question IGN put to Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick during a recent interview ahead of the company’s third-quarter financial report, and his answer makes for interesting reading.

While Zenick wouldn’t be drawn specifically on any new GTA Online because it has yet to be announced, he did talk generally about Take-Two’s form when it came to NBA 2K Online, a free-to-play online-focused version of 2K Sports’ hugely successful basketball franchise aimed at the Asian market.

NBA 2K Online launched all the way back in 2012, and then 2K Sports released NBA 2K Online 2 in 2017. Both games were maintained simultaneously, so fans of the first version could continue to play and invest their time and money safe in the knowledge they wouldn’t be left behind.

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