Well, this is what happens when one of your two publishers hasn't released a new game in over three years. Take-Two Interactive, parent company of Rockstar Games, has been made a lot more wealthy thanks to GTA V since its initial release — however GTA is hardly the only franchise the company controls. With both Rockstar Games and 2K being under their control, all the IPs of these developers fall under Take-Two jurisdiction as well.
Rockstar alone has countless successful franchises to its name like the Midnight Club, Bully, Red Dead, Manhunt and many more — add to that the massive roster of 2K franchises like Borderlands, Bioshock and anything with Sid Meier's name prefacing it and you have a damn long list.
Karl Slatoff, president of Take-two, recently spoke in New York City about his company's future plans. This was the event at which he discussed, at length, how Take-Two will avoid milking its franchises into fatigue.
While yearly releases are hardly a goal to reach for any one franchise, having a barren release schedule is just as bad — of course Take-Two is putting out plenty of games, however not enough to cover their IP library.
Take-Two is in the same heavy league as the likes of EA and Ubisoft, both of whom have games released on a constant rapid-fire schedule. However, in many regards Take-Two is more akin to Blizzard. A massive heavy-hitter, a pillar of the industry which doesn't release new games often, but supports their strongest franchises for a long time.
However, in the case of Take-Two, this isn't the best direction. Blizzard has a strong triumvirate of franchises, while Take-Two is loaded.
Our IP situation, right now–it’s better than it’s ever been in the company’s history. We’ve got a lot of IP. We’ve got more IP than we can even deal with at this point in time and we’re always looking at generating new IP
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has also recently revealed that the company will have a strong presence at this year's E3. This coincides with Ned Luke's recent announcement that Rockstar has put him and the other two GTA V protagonist's voice actors on the road again to start attending gaming events. It just so happens that one of those other voice actors, Shawn Fonteno, was recently featured in an image along with the voice actor of CJ from San Andreas teasing single player DLC.
These coinciding events all suggest the announcement of new content for GTA V which is more substantial than a free Online update. However, what of the other IPs that Take-Two "can't handle"?
2K has plenty of new releases lined up that we know of, but they're bound to announce a few new projects. Slatoff has stated that both Borderlands and Bioshock will be seeing more frequent new releases, so we might see something on that front.
The big surprise that everyone is hoping for, however, is a new game announcement from Rockstar. They have plenty of iced IPs that still have large fanbases. A new installment in the Midnight Club or Red Dead series would not only "win" E3 in terms of press, but their sales would rival that of GTA V.
Take-Two would be foolish to waste such an opportunity. With 3 years having passed since the release of GTA V, the public is more than ready for the next big thing from Rockstar Games, even if the plan is to continue supporting GTA Online until 2020.
Several prominent publishers, with EA among them, have announced that they will be skipping E3 this year. Despite this, the sudden return of Rockstar to the spotlight ensures this to be a big show.
Which other franchise from the developer of GTA V would you like to see revived?
