February 7th, 2013

Take-Two CEO Talks GTA V and the delay

Published at 3:54 AM PST

Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two's CEO, discussed Grand Theft Auto V and the recently announced delay during the company's Q3 2013 earnings call, stating that:

"Grand Theft Auto stands alone. It’s a unique property. And I think we’re all extraordinarily excited about this title, and we think it’s just going to blow people away frankly at a level I don’t think anyone properly anticipates yet."

While some fans have been quite vocal about their dispointment on the original Newswire article announcing the delay, Zelnick doesn't believe gamers will boycott the game:

"There is not one gamer who’s going to sit it out of Grand Theft Auto 5 hoping that something down the road is going to come along that’s better. Grand Theft Auto 5 is going to blow everyone away, and it will be in the market in September."

Zelnick also backed up Rockstar's original response on the delayed, that it is necessary for a more polished game that exceeds expectations. He also expressed his support for the September release window:

"As it happens, I think September is a great window. The fact is it’s a very open field that early in the fall. And as between late spring heading into the summer doldrums or early fall in an open field, that wasn’t the reason that the title moved, but I think it happens to be a terrific time to launch it."

Furthermore, in case you may have missed Rockstar's response on the Newswire article when the news first broke of the delay, it is not due to next-gen consoles (which are still not official, mind you) or any other conspiracy theories. The delay is purely based on Rockstar's well-known dedication to quality. The official box art is still on the way also, although also slightly delayed.

"To those of you saying or seeing various conspiracy theories about there being some other ulterior motive for this delay, rest assured that they’re all nonsense – literally the only reason we’ve delayed the release is because we want the game to be as good as it needs to be.
For those of you asking about the official box art, that will be coming out a bit later as well."

Thanks to GameZone for the transcript.