As CEO remains “highly convinced” about NFTs.
Despite originally launching back in 2013, Grand Theft Auto V remains a force to be reckoned with; according to Take-Two’s latest quarterly earnings report, Rockstar’s irrepressible open-world opus has managed to shift another 5m copies since November, bringing its lifetime sales up to 160m – and the publisher also had a little more to say about NFTs.
Alongside Grand Theft Auto V’s quarterly rise, Take-Two’s updated numbers show a continuing boost for the GTA series as a whole, which has now sold over 370 million units – an increase of 15m since November. However, as the publisher opted not to share sales data for its much-maligned GTA: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition, it’s unclear how much the troubled remaster contributed to that remaining 10m figure – although CEO Strauss Zelnick did say the game had “significantly exceeded” the company’s commercial expectations.
Zelnick also addressed The Definitive Edition’s reception again in conversation with GamesIndustry.biz, ahead of Take-Two’s latest earnings report. “We have some quality issues,” he acknowledged. “We’ve attempted to address those. We have more coming, and we feel very good about how the title has performed commercially. I think we were all a bit disappointed about the quality initially. We’re very grateful that most of those issues have been addressed. There’s more work to be done.”
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Zelnick also touched on the other big GTA news – that of the recently confirmed next series instalment – in the same conversation, saying, “I’m thrilled Rockstar’s working on the next iteration of Grand Theft Auto. I have no doubt it will be just great, and there’s every evidence to believe from the past that the Grand Theft Auto catalog will also continue to perform.”
As for NFTs – which have continued to remain in the news as more and more companies adopt (and occasionally drop) the environmentally devastating tech – Zelnick says he remains “highly convinced” about their value for consumers.
“We believe that NFTs are real,” he explained in response to a question around whether NFTs are just another passing industry fad, “and why wouldn’t they be? We believe in digital goods and we’ve been selling digital goods for a very long time,” Zelnick says. “We believe in rare goods, we believe in collectibles. The concern we have is that there’s a speculation going on.
“We want to make sure that consumers always have a good experience every time they engage with our properties. And losing money on a speculation is not a good experience, so we’re going to stay away from speculation. However, we’re highly convinced there’s an opportunity for NFTs to fit with Take-Two’s offerings in the future.”
