Over the past decade, the frequency with which Rockstar puts out games has really gone down, with new releases coming from the studio usually being separated by three or four years (and being restricted to one of two franchises- Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption). This generation, in fact, saw Rockstar releasing only one new game – that being Red Dead Redemption 2 (what with GTA 5 originally having coming out on PS3 and Xbox 360).
Of course, the quality of these final products usually speaks for itself, and it’s always abundantly clear just why Rockstar took so long to get these games out the game- but going forward, that might be about to change. As per known Rockstar insider SWEGTA on Twitter, Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive is reportedly pressuring them to return to a model that sees them making and releasing games with greater frequency. As SWEGTA notes, while this is something that would hurt the prospects of bigger franchises like Red Dead and GTA, smaller properties like Bully, Midnight Club, or Manhunt will probably get more opportunities from Rockstar, like they used to years ago.
As always, it’s best to take this with a grain of salt for now, as is the case with all unverified insider reports- but it’s worth pointing out that if this were accurate, it wouldn’t be completely out of the blue. Just last year, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick talked about how they might start prioritizing shorter games that could release more quickly in the future. Read more on that through here.
Take-Two is reportedly pressuring Rockstar Games to return to their more frequent game release schedule.
Although this probably would be bad for bigger franchises like GTA and Red Dead, it could incentivize them to continue focusing on much smaller titles like Bully and Manhunt.
— SWEGTA (@SWEGTA) January 17, 2020
