”We don’t subscribe to the philosophy of bringing a franchise out every single year,” Staloff promised, ”We think it takes a little bit more time to do something that is notably and meaningfully different each time you come out with a new title within a franchise.
“And for us it is about creating long-term value by creating franchises. It’s not just about getting excited about one franchise and beating it to death until it dies and going on to the next.”
It’s a costly philosophy at times, because in the years where there was no new Grand Theft Auto title on the shelves, Take 2 struggled. However, with its new stable of IPs, the publisher has reported its financial results for the year ended March 31, showing a return to profit following a loss during the previous 12 months.
Slatoff stated in the interview that diversity in its stable of IPs is key to its success. ”By definition, talent in the world is finite because there are several people on the planet who have the right kind of skill set for this,” he said. “Sam and Dan Houser. Greg Thomas. Sid Meier. I think our guys have an incredible capacity to make great games.
“Every time we think they have reached their capacity, they surprise us. It comes back to reinforcing our feeling that quality is more important than quantity. But I don’t want to put an artificial barrier around our guys because they have an incredible amount of capacity to take on multiple projects at the same time.”
Take Two’s latest critically acclaimed games include Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire. Take Two does have annualized sports games from their 2K Sports label, but that genre is now a traditionally annual-cycled genre.
