Take-Two Interactive is one of the first publishers to confirm that review bombings indeed hurt their bottomline.
Do review bombings work? The evidence suggests they unfortunately do, but most companies don't acknowledge this, and for a good reason — it's like admitting defeat. So, imagine the surprise when one of the most successful video game publishers in the world tells investors the risks involved when one of their games is the target of these user-driven campaigns. Take Two Interactive did just that.
The discovery comes courtesy of Stephen Totilo, who compared the company's latest 2024K 10K annual filing with the version it published in mid-2023. In the updated version, Take-Two issued a warning to its investors about the potential effects of review bombings, saying that they may "lead to loss of players and revenues, additional advertising and marketing costs, and reputation harm."
The GTA 6 publisher has felt the brunt of these campaigns in recent years. Negative feedback forced Take-Two to cancel WWE 2K21 in 2020, putting an end to a long-standing streak for the once-annual franchise. The series has since returned to a yearly release, but Take-Two is now aware that fans won't stand for the release of a subpar product.
On a more GTA-related note, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy—The Definitive Edition suffered mightily from a botched release — and was received as such — which may or may not have impacted the company's plans to launch a similarly remastered version of Grand Theft Auto 4.
Take-Two has a treasure trove of older titles begging for a modern re-release, but its piecemeal approach, which involves leveraging GTA+ and partnerships with Netflix, suggests that it's taking caution. Perhaps it would've taken a different approach had it not for the issues the GTA remastered trilogy faced at launch.
So far, Take-Two is the only video game publisher to publicly acknowledge that the onslaught of negative comments by fans and critics has an effect. Whether or not others will follow suit in their future public filings remains to be seen.
Regardless of Take-Two's newfound stance on review bombings, Grand Theft Auto 6 should remain unaffected. It's easily the most hyped video game of the past decade, with the numbers to back this claim.
The anticipation surrounding the next GTA game isn't just from fans either. Other publishers like Ubisoft and Xbox have marked its Fall 2025 release window on their calendars, believing that it will have a seismic impact on the entire video game industry.
