Many of us may be eagerly awaiting Rockstar Games to officially announce that GTA 6 is running, but a recent call for results , Grand T...
Many of us may be eagerly awaiting Rockstar Games to officially announce that GTA 6 is running, but a recent call for results , Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive, has indicated that we won't see it will not be a new short term GTA. , And to be honest, I'm not really surprised.
During the same conference call, Take-Two announced that GTA Online, GTA 5's online multiplayer, delivered its "best vacation quarter for audience size and net reserve".
In addition, microtransactions in Grand Theft Auto Online increased 54% in the third quarter, partly due in part to the launch of the Diamond Casino and Resort update in July 2019.
"We are now on the right track to set a new record of recurring consumer spending for Grand Theft Auto Online in fiscal 2020," said Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss H. Zelnick, who said results are demanding. "The sale of Grand Theft Auto V also exceeded our expectations and the title has now sold more than 120 million units."
While GTA Online is proving to be a growing gold mine, why should (or should) Rockstar Games launch GTA 6 at short notice? The simple answer: this is not the case.
milk cow
To date, 120 million copies of GTA 5 have been sold worldwide. The results announced Take-Two Interactive expects GTA Online to be one of the highest earnings for 2020, and the publisher expects "consumer spending" prices to rise by around 10%, mainly due to the growth of Grand. Theft Auto Online and Red Muerto online. "
Realistically speaking, there is no financial pressure for Rockstar to launch GTA 6 at short notice, although fans are eagerly awaiting an announcement. GTA 5 (and thus GTA Online) continues to generate money and consumer spending increases from year to year. Because of this, it wouldn't make sense to switch these consumers to a new game now, which Rockstar might try.
In reality, there are three ways to introduce Rockstar Games to GTA Online and GTA 6, and one seems more likely than the others.
Move everyone as quickly as possible
The first approach could be to launch GTA 6 with an immediately available online mode in the coming years (probably in late 2021 or mid-2022). Rockstar would then try to switch players from GTA Online to the new online mode.
However, since players are already familiar with GTA 5 and GTA Online, it is risky to switch this player base to a new game. As we've seen at Red Dead Online, online players aren't always interested in moving to another location after spending hours in a game, especially when so many people have invested their well-deserved money losing in-game transactions they will likely be in a new iteration of the online multiplayer unless Rockstar finds a way to transfer those transactions to a new game (which can alienate new players directly from the racket). ,
In practice, however, the study focuses more on the main game of GTA 6 and later starts an online mode.
Pending game
The second and probably most likely option is that we will see the release of GTA 6 in the same launch window, but without online mode. This would allow players to buy GTA 6 but continue to play (and spend money) on GTA Online.
Rockstar could implement an online mode for GTA 6 a few months or years after its launch, and could slowly transition from GTA online players to the new online mode, although this may affect Red Dead Online's performance.
GTA 5 online mode started a few weeks after the base game, but didn't gain strength until a few years after the game ended, making it the most likely option.
It is also worth considering the extra time it may take to develop GTA 6 online mode on the latest generation of consoles. Take-Two's chairman, Karl Slatoff, is confident that the publisher's transition to live service titles will continue to be successful.
"What exactly will be the transition from game to game between console cycles," said Slatoff. "But there is no reason to believe that the success we have with these services would be less in the new generation than in the old one."
Not all players may want to switch to next generation consoles as soon as possible as this doesn't seem cheap. It is likely to be beneficial in the long run to give them the opportunity to transition slowly.
If you later start an online mode, Rockstar can continue to take advantage of GTA Online and at the same time develop a basis for GTA 6. If this base is strong enough, try to get the players through from old to new. This is perhaps the most sensible way to do this. Unless ...
GTA Online becomes independent
The last option, but probably the least likely, is that GTA Online is independent. Instead of just being a multiplayer mode for GTA 5, it could become a standalone game that has nothing to do with the main titles of Grand Theft Auto.
It would be a risky and difficult job for Rockstar, but it would mean that players don't have to buy a brand new game to access GTA Online.
Instead, you may be able to download it online free of charge from consoles or via PC via Rockstar Games Launcher.
However, this approach would likely affect the sale of the main game. It seems that a big attraction for GTA 5 players is the free online multiplayer mode that comes with the paid game for free. I can see that the game's main revenue would be affected if this free online mode, regardless of its quality, were no longer available and Rockstar did not want it.
The truth is that now we can only speculate about what will happen to GTA 6 and GTA Online. But Take-Two said it would reveal more about its project plans in the coming months: I hope GTA 6 is one of them.
