Right here I’m once more, sitting at my desk, listening to Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick spout some monetary buzzwords in an investor name, simply in case there are any revelations about GTA 6. It is turn into a quarterly custom for me now. Anyway, there is not any want for panic this time round, avid gamers – the large takeaway from Take-Two’s new earnings report is that the GTA 6 launch date of November 19 stays unchanged. Huzzah! Nonetheless, there are just a few extra fascinating tidbits to return from Zelnick immediately. He has commented for the primary time on advertising for GTA 6, addressed rumors about delaying bodily editions of the sport, and obtained very starry eyed about generative AI following all of the latest Google Genie mania. Nonetheless, he is assured that gen-AI has performed “zero half” within the growth of Rockstar’s upcoming behemoth.
If there was ever a recreation that did not want advertising, it is most likely GTA 6. Two trailers, two delay bulletins, and an internet site filled with screenshots and character profiles has already been sufficient to get thousands and thousands of avid gamers excited. I am already struggling to see a world the place it would not break a lot of the gross sales information GTA 5 holds, if not all of them. Nonetheless, there’ll nonetheless be a correct push within the build-up to launch, and Zelnick has confirmed that it’ll start “this summer season.” That provides me extra confidence than ever that the November launch date will really be hit.
“Are we simply going to sit down again and loosen up as we head into the discharge of GTA 6? I feel the alternative is true,” he tells an investor asking whether or not Take-Two and Rockstar even have to market the open-world recreation, given the excitement round it.
“We’re very lucky – the patron anticipation for GTA 6 is certainly big,” Zelnick provides. “And one does must be even handed in the way in which one markets such a rare property. However relaxation assured, I feel you may be fairly astonished by the creativity that Rockstar’s advertising crew brings to customers within the coming months.”
Away from advertising, and in an interview with Selection, Zelnick has achieved some myth-busting. Final week, it was claimed that there have been plans to stagger the discharge of bodily variations of GTA 6 to guard in opposition to leaks. There have been a number of high-profile situations in recent times of boxed copies of video games being stolen from retailers or illegitimately offered forward of their official launch date, which frequently results in some smug dude importing some grainy, mobile phone digicam footage of them enjoying it earlier than anybody else. Not cool. Nonetheless, Zelnick has abruptly rubbished these rumors, saying: “That is not the plan.”
Zelnick has additionally as soon as once more mentioned AI, however this time it is off the again of Google’s controversial Challenge Genie tech that permits customers to create explorable worlds and characters with some easy prompts. The perceived energy of Genie noticed just about each main recreation writer’s inventory take a dive, Take-Two’s included. Whereas he is beforehand been cautiously optimistic about generative AI, however pretty agency in relation to its restricted inventive talents, he sounds much more enthusiastic in immediately’s earnings name than he has beforehand.
“We’re now actively embracing generative AI, we’ve lots of of pilots and implementations throughout our firm, together with with our studios,” Zelnick says in response to a query from an investor. “We’re seeing alternatives to drive efficiencies, scale back prices, and create the chance to do what digital expertise has at all times allowed, which is: mundane duties turn into simpler and fewer related, which frees up our creators to do the extra fascinating duties of constructing very good leisure.”
Nonetheless, chatting with GamesIndustry.biz, he assures this doesn’t suggest gen-AI has wormed its manner into GTA 6.
“Do I feel instruments by themselves create nice leisure properties? No, there is not any proof that that is the case and it will not be the case sooner or later,” he asserts. “Particularly almost about GTA 6, Generative AI has zero half in what Rockstar Video games is constructing. Their worlds are handcrafted. That is what differentiates them. They’re constructed from the bottom up, constructing by constructing, avenue by avenue, neighborhood by neighborhood. They don’t seem to be procedurally generated, they should not be. That is what makes nice leisure.”
Ought to that assurance transform unfaithful, and gamers do discover proof of generative AI use in GTA 6, I can think about there’d be an almighty uproar. I am crossing my fingers that does not occur. Nonetheless, the robust stance on these bodily version rumors, and the assured statements about advertising, have definitely helped delete a number of the remaining doubts I had about GTA 6 really arriving this 12 months.
