According to the leader of Rockstar Games‘ parent company, trolls fill his Twitter feed but does acknowledge fan feedback is essential to listen to. Take Two Interactive‘s CEO Strauss Zelnick also revealed how Rockstar did not plan to have microtransactions in GTA Online until near release.
This week, Mr Zelnick was interviewed by TikTok NPC content creator Conner Mather. Of course, questions about GTA 6 were asked which you can read about here but in this article we’re focusing on GTA 6 fans and GTA Online.
GTA Online Without Shark Cards Almost Happened
When asked if he expected GTA Online to be so successful, Mr Zelnick said he nor anyone else did at the companies. Zelnick also revealed microtransactions were not part of GTA Online’s original plan. Below is the full quote of the CEO’s answer which gives an interesting insight into the early days of GTA Online:
“We actually originally had not planned to have virtual currency in the game so it wasn’t going to be an economic driver. It relatively late in the day when we decided to pursue virtual currency because this long ago we’re looking back at 2013. It wasn’t an immediate success. You may recall it was it was pretty buggy at first. We had some trouble coming out of the gate and because it was all new and we were innovating, we were doing it all in real time. So it was like building a plane while you’re taking off and then flying it.” – Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick
GTA Fan’s Expectations
Next, Conner wanted to know how Rockstar and Take-Two manage the huge expectations of GTA fans. Strauss tells the TikToker they listen to fans.
“We definitely listen to feedback from our from our fans. Absolutely. You need to in our business (…) It is true that fan feedback is important but at the same time you can’t be totally data driven you have to be creatively.” – Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick
The decision maker also stated the biggest games are the ones you expect the least and that “everything that we do has to be new and different, not derivative”. He goes onto say that “our teams are focused on what’s new that you haven’t even thought about like you thought you were anticipating this thing but this is way bigger and way better and more exciting and more beautiful than you could possibly thought of.”
GTA Fans Or Trolls?
The TikTok star wonders that Rockstar and even Strauss has a lot of trolls online. Zelnick tells him that “Oh yeah, my Twitter feed, yeah it’s full of it”. Although he does say with a smirk it has not been so bad as of recent. “Actually it hasn’t it hasn’t been much lately. Yeah it used to be a lot worse. I know people have moved on. We like the fact people care.”
The pair talked about how Rockstar and Take-Two work together. Mather wondered what their working relationship is like. Take-Two’s boss stated “Rockstar is highly independent creatively and and are the nature of our in our internal workings across all of our labels is lots of interaction, lots of support obviously financial support, marketing and distribution support. Creatively the labels are exercising enormous freedom.”
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