Strauss Zelnick believes that studios should aim to achieve the maximum before releasing a video game. Find the best possible version.
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick believes that development studios shouldn’t be rushed when it comes to putting their video games up for sale, but rather wait and strive for perfection in their projects above all else. The manager, responsible for the Rockstar Games (GTA, Red Dead Redemption) and 2K Games matrix, has a clear answer when asked about the hasty releases; a collation of the case Cyberpunk 2077.
“It is always better to wait for perfection if you can create perfection”
“We have the most self-critical group I have ever worked with,” says Zelnick during the question and answer session of the last financial results session, where Take-Two has reported great benefits in the last quarter of 2020. “How do we maintain our commitment with the quality? Ensuring that our creative teams pursue what they are passionate about and not something they are not passionate about. And maintaining operational and financial discipline at the same time ”, he adds. As a consequence, “we can have long development cycles, and we have been criticized for this,” he clarifies.
Red Dead Redemption 2 | Rockstar games
Zelnick does not repair when referring, without quoting it verbatim, to the case of Cyberpunk 2077, where in his opinion the objective of the study exceeded its own scope. “The case you are referring to reflects the fact that it is always better to wait for perfection if you can create perfection,” he says. “And all of our brands seek perfection. We do not always succeed, sometimes we fall by the wayside. But that’s the goal ”.
Finally, it highlights the work of its main studio, Rockstar Games, which after seven years on sale continues to update GTA Online and Red Dead Online, the latter much more recent but with a similar content aggregation policy, because “they have released material that they really trust, that they are passionate about and that is of the best possible quality ”.
Finally, and although it was not necessary to ask him about the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI or future large-scale projects under the Take-Two Interactive seal, Zelnickk says that “what we do know is that we will wait for it to be as perfect as possible. ”What comes after GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2 and the like. At the moment, GTA V has reached 140 million units sold; for its part, the second part of the outlaws in the West has 36 million copies worldwide.
