Take-Two Interactive chairman Strauss Zelnick, who is currently aiming to make the company profitable every year rather than just in years when there is a new Grand Theft Auto release, believes that the common practise of releasing annual sequels is enemy of creativity.
The publisher finds itself in the difficult situation of needing to become more profitable via quicker releases on lower budgets, while maintaining the creativity behind many of its titles such as Bioshock and Borderlands. According to 1UP, Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar Games has spent more than five years on Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire.
"We have a worldwide distribution and publishing footprint, and in a GTA year that cost basis is fine, but in a non-GTA year it"s too high. We need to get bigger," Zelnick explained to the LA Times.
"We can make quality videogames and release them in a somewhat more orderly fashion than we have done historically," he continued. "We"ll stop short of a strictly annual schedule, however, because I think that is the enemy of pushing the envelope creatively."
"The barometer is when we are profitable in a non-GTA year. I think we can get there. I certainly aspire to it."