With Take-Two Interactive having revealed quite a bit of details regarding its future plans in a recent earnings call, CEO Strauss Zelnick has revealed that the company isn’t worried about hardware sales for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S having fallen. In an interview with IGN, Zelnick also spoke about the release strategy for Grand Theft Auto 6.
“So with Civ 7 it’s available on console and PC and Switch right away,” said Zelnick, referring to the recent multi-platform release of Civilization 7. “With regard to others in our lineup, we don’t always go across all platforms simultaneously. Historically, Rockstar has started with some platforms and then historically moved to other platforms.”
Zelnick is referring to the tradition of Rockstar’s titles not coming to all consoles on the same day. GTA 4, 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2, for instance, got their PC releases well after the original console versions launch. Even the seminal Red Dead Redemption only managed to make its way on to PC last year.
He did, however, point out that PC is an important platform for Take-Two as a whole, with most games in the publisher’s line-up coming to the platform along with their console releases.
“We have seen PC become a much more and more important part of what used to be a console business, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that trend continue,” he said. “Of course, there will be a new console generation.”
Zelnick also said that he expects the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto 6 to be a big enough event that fans of the franchise that are still sticking to either their old consoles or PCs will want to get their hands on a PS5, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S in order to play.
“When you have a big title in the market and we have many of them coming, historically that has sold consoles,” Zelnick said.
“And I think that will happen this year. I don’t think tariffs are going to be our friend, but I think there will be a meaningful uptick in console sales in calendar 25 because of the release schedule, not just coming from us, but coming from others. So I’m not concerned about that [console sales falling]. I think the trend that you’d want to focus on is this increasing share of the market that is reflected in PC.”
Reports of console sales being down came about last months thanks to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella revealing that both the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S sold less hardware in 2024 than they did back in 2023. Check out our report for more details.
Despite this confidence in Grand Theft Auto 6‘s success, Zelnick has previously stated that Take-Two won’t get arrogant about it. During its earnings call, the company stated that it is well aware of competitors from the rest of the gaming industry not being asleep.
As for GTA 6, there is currently no confirmed release date aside from a Fall 2025 release window. It is being developed for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
