GTA 6 review scores are important: Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says months ahead of game launch

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has said that review scores remain an important measure of success for video games. This includes the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6, despite changing media consumption habits and the growing influence of social media. Speaking to The Game Business ahead of GTA 6's launch on November 19, Zelnick said critical reception matters today just as much as it did in previous years and pointed to Rockstar Games' track record as evidence of the studio's focus on quality.

“Of course”, review scores are important, Zelnick said, adding that they matter as much today “as they have in the past.” He added, “Rockstar’s scores are typically in the mid-90s, sometimes high 90s. Not many games can say that. And that’s a reflection on Rockstar’s commitment to quality.”

Rockstar's previous major releases, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, both earned Metacritic scores of 97. However, industry observers believe maintaining that level of critical consensus may be more difficult in today's media environment.

Take Two CEO addresses 2K's recent launch challenges

During the interview, Zelnick also discussed recent releases from Take-Two's 2K label, acknowledging issues surrounding the launches of Borderlands 4 and Civilisation 7 while defending their overall performance.

“I take responsibility for any missteps anywhere in our company. The responsibility is with me. That’s my job. Borderlands 4 was highly successful. It will be a very profitable lifetime title. [Civilization] 7 was very successful, and it will be a very profitable lifetime title. Both faced some challenges in their initial releases, and those are being addressed. We have just released a very significant update for Civ 7. We’ve released updates for Borderlands 4. There is more content coming for both games,” he said.

“I definitely can acknowledge missteps with both releases, but at the same time, these are great franchises, these are great iterations, and we couldn’t be more thrilled of how the business is going broadly. I think 2K is crushing it across the board. If the worst you can say in a year when you’ve had this kind-of [financial] performance is that a couple of titles did slightly less well than you would have hoped, and you’re addressing whatever challenges you face and you’re still generating profits with both titles… that’s a high-class problem. I’ll take those problems any day of the week,” Zelnick explained.

Zelnick also responded to questions about lengthy development timelines affecting several upcoming Take-Two projects, including BioShock 4, Project Ethos, GTA 6 and Judas.

“I wouldn’t confuse long development cycles with a lackadaisical approach to development cycles. Everything we do is in the context of milestones, budgets and delivery dates. Certain titles are so complex and so challenging to build, they take a long time. It is possible that recent developments in technology will allow us to compress some development timelines without comprising quality, and we will hope to do that,” he noted.

“But everything that we do here is thought out and reasoned, we don’t just wait to hear how things are going. We make choices about how we are going to develop in the context of what our creative teams are trying to achieve and what we believe the market demands in terms of quality in order to deliver a hit. We are in the business of making hits. Everything we do is in service of trying to make a hit,” Zelnick highlighted.