Take-Two May Opt to Release Shorter Games in the Future

While Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption and Borderlands all allow players to sink their teeth into experiences for hours upon hours of story, Take-Two (the parent company for studios 2K Games and Rockstar Games) may find a different approach in the future.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke with GamesIndustry regarding the length of their future releases and how post-launch content releases could initially make longer titles shorter in duration.

“It’s possible that the ability to deliver content on an ongoing basis for a long time after an initial release of a hit would mean that perhaps that initial release wouldn’t be as long in terms of number of hours of gameplay as previously had been demanded in a world where that was all you were getting.” – Strauss Zelnick,Take-Two CEO

While games like GTA and Red Dead Redemption provide lengthy story duration and minimal single-player focused DLC, according to Zelnick that could all change in the future. The Borderlands franchise has always seen its share of post-launch single-player DLC – and that’s not changing with the upcoming Borderlands 3 release – so perhaps Take-Two would push for Rockstar Games to adapt to a similar formula.

As of this writing, there’s been no announcement for a new GTA and we shouldn’t expect a new Red Dead title for a while. However, it is possible we could see some sort of single-player DLC release for Red Dead Redemption 2 later down the line.

Zelnick also commented on shorter titles could allow for developers to release games with a shorter window in between titles. With the most recent GTA title releasing almost six years ago, an eight year gap between both Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 and Borderlands 2 and 3, as well as a substantial gap between Bioshock Infinite and the present, Zelnick would like to see this enduring trend between releases end.

“I don’t see it expanding further(…)In fact, I would expect in many instances it may compress(…)And we believe in resting titles as a great thing. I was a real outlier 12 years ago when we said we don’t think it makes sense to annualize non-sports titles, and now most people would agree. But I think eight years is probably too long.” – Zelnick

Whatever the case, on one hand we would love to see Take-Two titles (as well as other major video games) hit the market with a less than five year window. But on the other hand, would sacrificing story length or perhaps promoting more paid DLC be worth the shortened wait time?

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Source: GamesIndustry