It is rare that I sit down and write one of these ‘CEO has spoken’ articles with a charitable mind, mostly because I have this irritating habit of punching up, but also because they are, typically, a little divorced from reality. Like the head of Amazon Games saying videogames don’t really have voice acting, or Microsoft’s Satya Nadella trying to retroactively justify AI for the nth time.
Which is why I have to come forward and say that Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has been extremely reasonable in a recent interview with IGN. When asked whether or not Red Dead Online is considered a missed opportunity—and it has, admittedly, been less of a breadwinner for the publisher than GTA Online—he had this to say:
“So let me be clear. There is literally nothing about Red Dead selling 85 million units that could signal a missed opportunity. And Red Dead Online has been immensely successful and long lasting.”
Furthermore, Zelnick adds, even if GTA Online didn’t exist, producing one of the other most successful open-world videogame franchises out there would also be absolutely fine: “I think if we didn’t have Grand Theft Auto here at our company, then people would just talk about the fact that we have this massive franchise in Red Dead.
“I actually personally think Red Dead is just amazing and I love engaging with it. And I think the reason it continues to sell is that it’s just spectacular entertainment. It’s beautiful and it feels very up to date despite the fact that it’s not a new title.”
As to whether or not Red Dead Online is a little underserved from a player perspective, well—that’s another thing entirely. I’m not partial to Rockstar’s online games myself, but the PC Gaming Show’s own Joe Donelly noted last year that “despite its scope to match the ambition of GTA Online once upon a time, RDO instead persists in the lurching shadow of its modern day cousin.”
But that’s a bit different from the business-related implication that Red Dead Online is somehow a missed opportunity. I’d argue selling 85 million copies of anything is good enough, even if you never updated its online component ever again.
And while I’ve got sympathies for RDO’s doubtless passionate playerbase, I’m not sure every game with an online slice needs to be a perpetually-maintained live service mill. I even kind of miss the day where superfluous multiplayer modes would come and go—but hey, I’m a games journalist, and my live service fatigue doesn’t speak for cowboys, cowgirls, and horse girls everywhere.
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