Take-Two Interactive, the parent company to Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption developer Rockstar, is doing pretty well these days. While fewer games have come from its subsidiaries than updates for current titles, Take-Two still plans to release 93 games over the next five years.
Both Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 represent crossroads in video games, places where two genres meet: online, live-service multiplayer, and dedicated single player. One of those, the multiplayer, has clearly been the more lucrative of the two for Rockstar and Take-Two, inspiring many imitators. However, Take-Two's stance on single player has apparently not shifted, with its CEO declaring that single player is not dead.
Specifically, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick affirmed this stance during an earnings call, declaring that Rockstar games' tried and true narrative excellence will not falter in future games. Indeed, while players debate about the ethics and quality of other aspects of Rockstar's games, its narrative power has rarely been called into question. The stories of GTA and Red Dead Redemption titles are not always the center of the conversation, and the story is likely not the largest reason that GTA 5 passed a huge sales milestone recently. Nonetheless, they are vital, high-quality components of the games.
This statement by Zelnick was in response to an argument brought forth by several triple-A developers in recent years that single-player games are on their way out. The opinion of said developers was that players no longer craved single-player experiences, and this was the reason they wished to focus on multiplayer games. Of course, Zelnick is not the first to refute this stance. It was primarily refuted by players, who very much still wanted high-quality single-player, story-driven experiences. Unbelievable as it may seem to some developers, many players appreciate the symbolism in Red Dead Redemption 2 as much as, or more than, the gunplay.
While this affirmation is certainly encouraging in that it makes it sound like Take-Two will continue putting quality stories in its games, it's not a declaration of quality or even values in and of itself. Rockstar could still stand some more innovation on other fronts, and there are compelling reasons for it to tackle a new IP.
Furthermore, Rockstar and Take-Two's focus has not exactly been on expanding the story of its two latest games, with GTA V standing in contrast to GTA IV where the story is concerned. However, if further multiplayer elements eventually contribute to better single-player experiences, many would consider it well worth the wait. After all, there are compelling reasons why GTA V can be considered the best game of the last decade, and for many, its story is a big part of that.
Source: Take-Two Interactive