Rockstar Teases Next-Gen Release 2015

In their investor call for the fiscal year 2013, publisher Take-Two Interactive revealed that the last 12 months were very lucrative ones. With the launch of Grand Theft Auto 5 and the sustained revenue stream of Grand Theft Auto Online, the company was able to turn a huge profit and bumped up total revenue by 94%.

In addition to talk of past financial success, however, Take-Two also dropped a hint as to what gamers can expect in the future. More specifically, the publisher confirmed that Rockstar Games will have a next-gen release (PS4, Xbox One) on store shelves by the end of their 2014 fiscal year, which ends in March 2015.

CEO Strauss Zelnick broke the news saying:

"We're excited about what [Rockstar] have in store for the new generation of systems this fiscal year."

Of course, with so many properties under Rockstar's belt, it's hard to nail down just one out of the dozen or so possibilities for the developer's next game. An obvious choice, and one that ranks pretty high among our readers, would be Red Dead Redemption 2, a sequel that has been rumored for quite some time but has never officially been confirmed by Rockstar or Take-Two.

There's also the possibility that the next-gen game could be Bully 2, another title that seems part of Rockstar's future plans, but has yet to be officially announced. In fact, Rockstar filed a few Bully-related trademarks in the last year or so, suggesting development might have begun at Rockstar's Vancouver studio.

Take Two CEO Red Dead Redemption 2

Unfortunately, while we'd like to believe that a new Bully, a new Red Dead Redemption, or even (wishful thinking) a new LA Noire is on the way, chances are this "next-gen" release to which Zelnick is referring are the PS4 and Xbox One ports of Grand Theft Auto 5 that gamers have been expecting for the last year. It's true that Rockstar proclaimed their current versions of Grand Theft Auto 5 as "next-gen," but few believed they wouldn't eventually port the game to Microsoft and Sony's new platforms.

For that matter, history has shown that Rockstar tends to deploy the slow and steady approach when it comes to promoting their games. In other words, it's hard to imagine the developer would announce and release a game within the next 10 months. That certainly doesn't rule out the possibility of a non-GTA 5 release, but it would be uncharacteristic of the company.

With E3 2014 right around the corner, some might assume that Rockstar would make their next-gen announcement then, but the developer typically shies away from annual event.  Either way, we'll make sure to keep you posted whenever they do reveal what's in store for gamers this year.

Do you think Rockstar's next-gen release will be a new title or a port of Grand Theft Auto 5? If it is a new game, what do you think it is?

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Source: Joystiq

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